Handicap International experience in Afghanistan - CBM

If we look more closely at the various types of disability, as expected, it is the persons having associateddisabilities who report the most difficulty in performing daily personal tasks such as:• Bathing or ablution: 67.5% are not able or have some difficulty;• Getting dressed: 59.5%;• Preparing meals: 71.5%;• Going to the toilet: 58.4%;• Eating and drinking: 33.3%;• Moving around: 58.3%.In fact, persons with associated disabilities have the lowest rates of ability to perform daily self-care tasks,ranging from only 28.5% persons being able to prepare meals for themselves to 66.7% being able to eatand drink without difficulty.People with physical disability have a high level of inability and difficulty in accomplishing daily personalroutines on their own without any equipment. The exception is drinking and eating: only 3.2% of physicallydisabled persons are unable to perform this task. Difficulties in performing tasks that require more movementwere logically higher.People with mental disability, including learning, psychological, intellectual and social disabilities, havedifficulties with all activities requiring the use of intellectual faculties. Bathing (45.7% with both mild andsevere difficulties), preparing meals (50.6%) and getting dressed (34.6%) were recognised as the mostdifficult tasks to perform.People with epilepsy and other types of seizures have the least difficulty in performing their daily tasks. Thisis probably due to the fact that except during the periods of seizure, they are able to do their daily tasks withno difficulty.Household ChoresThe daily household’s duties include sweeping, cooking meals, washing dishes, looking after young children,looking after elder members and doing laundry. These tasks are mainly the domain of women and childrenin the Afghan society. This cultural specificity explains why the questions related to household tasks were notasked to males 17 . Therefore, the results presented exclude men above the age of 14 and children under theage of 8. However, for women, the ability to carry out these tasks is of the utmost importance. This impactsthe contribution to family life, and more generally, influences social acceptance.Whatever the activity considered, more than 70% of non-disabled people are able to perform any of thesetasks, whereas persons with disability able to perform them are always less than 50%. This is to be comparedto the results presented in the previous section in which persons with disability are a majority able to takecare of themselves. The most demanding tasks within the household are doing the laundry and looking afterelder members.Whateverthe activityconsidered,more than 70%of non-disabledpeople are ableto performany of thesetasks, whereaspersons withdisability ableto perform themare always lessthan 50%. Themost demandingtasks withinthe householdare doing thelaundry andlooking afterelder membersThe ability to perform a given task within the house depends on the type of disability that a person has.Persons with physical and associated disabilities have the most difficulty, followed by persons with sensorialdisabilities. Then come those with mental disability; whereas persons with epilepsy or other forms of seizureshave the least difficulty in performing these tasks. With the exception of this last case, the difficulties incarrying out household tasks are considerable. Here again, these results show the impact of impairment onthe ability to perform daily household tasks for persons with disability, whatever the type of disability.17During the pre-test of the questionnaire, the men interviewed answered that they were not able to do the household chores,confusing the ability to do these and social practices.The Health Picture17