Integrating Disability into Development in Eastern Indonesia: a Case Study in Theory versus Reality

This paper looks at patterns of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in two rural, isolated regions of Flores, Eastern Indonesia. It examines methods adapted by local NGOs to integrate children with disabilities (CWD) into the community as it also examines the major constraints that ensure CBR as an approach is far from being realized. While the paper argues for the necessity of a stronger guideline in defining disability and a more gendered focus in research and practice, it also shows how the various methods embraced by the donor agency (as well as the local implementing NGOs) raise many questions that need to be better understood for future disability activities in rural, low income communities.