Handicap International experience in Afghanistan - CBM

Over 75% persons with associated disabilities have difficulty in all of the items mentioned (85.9%have difficulty sweeping the house, 89.1% have difficulty cooking a meal, 82.8% have difficulty washingthe dishes, 78.1% have difficulty looking after young children, 82.9% have difficulty looking after eldermembers, 89.1% have difficulty doing the laundry).As expected, persons with physical disability have considerable difficulty in carrying out tasks that arephysically demanding, such as sweeping (82.2%), preparing meals (86.2%), washing dishes (79.6%),looking after children (69.1%), looking after elder members (78.1%) and doing the laundry (77.9%).A high proportion of persons with sensorial disability report not being able to carry out these tasks easily:53.8% have difficulties in sweeping, 65.7% in cooking meals, 59.7% in washing dishes and 68.6% in doingthe laundry. These figures could also signify that these persons are not expected to do these tasks, as there isa problem of communication. For looking after children and elders 54.5% and 65.4% respectively of personswith sensorial impairments have difficulties. These results are more in line with expectations as the tasks doentail interaction with others.Persons with mental disability also show a high proportion who have difficulties carrying out housework.For some tasks the proportion of persons having great difficulty is less than in previous categories: 47.4%claim to have problems in sweeping and 60.8% find it challenging to do the laundry. However, 66.5%have difficulty washing dishes, 65.2% have difficulty in looking after children and 60.8% have the sameregarding elders.Lastly, it is noticeable that the responses to this question are less nuanced between “yes, with difficulty” andare more often a categorical “no”, with the exception of persons with physical disability. In the latter category,the “yes with difficulty” is far more frequent an answer. This suggests a strong belief that the person hasregarding the ability to do certain things.Chores Outside the House/in the FieldThis third set of tasks is related to the ability to move outside the household and the compound. Few nondisabledpersons report inability to perform these tasks. In these cases, the explanation lies in the fact thatthe women are not allowed to perform farming activities, especially in Pashto areas 18 .Persons withdisabilityreported havingthe mostdifficulty withperformingmanual labour,(working in thefield) or ridinga bicycle or ananimalPersons with disability reported having the most difficulty with performing manual labour, (working in thefield) or riding a bicycle or an animal. There is a clear distinction between the ability to perform these twotasks and being able to perform the other ones mentioned in Table 4. More than 60% of the respondentshaving disability reported not being able at all to work in the field or ride a bicycle or an animal, whereasonly 26.7% are not able to climb stairs, 31.1% cannot go the bazaar and 48.0% are unable to carry heavythings. If the persons with disability having difficulty to work in the field or ride a bicycle are consideredtogether, then only one fourth are able to accomplish these tasks outside the house.People with physical disability and associated disabilities are the most challenged when it comes to tasksthat require high mobility and physical strength. The proportion of those experiencing difficulty is again veryhigh:• At the lower proportion, this means that 76.4% persons with physical disability and 61.5% with associateddisabilities respectively have difficulty in some way with doing the shopping and climbing stairs.• At the higher proportion, this implies that 93.2% of those with physical disability and 90.0% withassociated disabilities have difficulty working in the field.18See ALDEN W. L. (2004), “Looking for Peace in the Pastures: Rural Land Relations in Afghanistan”, Afghanistan Research andEvaluation Unit Report, AREU, December 2004, 125 pp.The Health Picture19