Italy supports rehabilitation services for the disabled

This needed funding will help to establish a prosthetics and rehabilitation center in Hamdaniya district south-east Mosul. The ten-month project aims to provide over 450 people including 50 under five and 300 above five years old children with specialized medical care and rehabilitation services.

The newly established center will streamline the identification and treatment plans of patients in need of prosthesis in Ninewa Governorate. This will ensure better case management and medical follow up procedures. Recent national health statistics indicate the presence of approximately 4800 amputation cases in Mosul requiring urgent attention and care to help them in attaning a better quality of life.

The national capacity to deliver trauma, prosthetic, and rehabilitation services to victims of the conflict in Mosul remains limited. Currently, the Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Suleimaniya is the only active center in the country specialized in physiotherapy and the production of upper and lower limbs in addition to walking aids/orthopedic devices for persons with disabilities. This centre has been receiving Mosul victims in need of prosthesis and rehabilitation care referred from Erbil Emergency Hospital.

“The conflict in Mosul has affected tens of thousands of people who are in need of specialized rehabilitation services,” said Altaf Musani, WHO Representative in Iraq. “The establishment of this rehabilitation center will ensure the availability of postoperative, post-traumatic, and rehabilitation services for amputees. In addition, such center will help in ensuring a better quality of life and in reducing social exclusion and enhancing social integration in their own communities,” he added.

WHO strives to improve the health of the most vulnerable people in Iraq in 2018/2019, and for that purpose 59 million USD is needed, of which only 24% has been secured.