Afghanistan is a mountainous country in Central Asia, whose people traditionally live in village areas, making their livings through agriculture and animal husbandry. Wars and other conflicts have destroyed the country’s infrastructure, further impoverishing the people, and leaving them at an increased risk of disease and insecurity.

There are a significant number of people with disabilities in Afghanistan. An estimated one out of every five households has at least one person with a disability. The causes of disability in Afghanistan include congenital conditions; birth injuries; diseases like polio and measles; war-related disabilities from bullets, bombs, landmines, and work; home or road accidents. Disability has a dramatic impact in Afghanistan including loss of livelihood, lost opportunities for education, training and employment, and social and religious exclusion.

The Orthopedic Workshop and Physiotherapy Center (OWPC) opened in June 2004 in Faryab Province in northwest Afghanistan, an area beyond the reach of established services available in larger places such as Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat. The OWPC is a program of a partner that has been at work in Afghanistan since 1966. The OWPC team works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the provincial and national Health Ministries for protocol and services, and the Institute of Health Sciences for professional training of physical therapists and orthopedic technicians. The OWPC facility, situated on the grounds of the provincial hospital and generally accessible and well known, is open five days a week. Two physical therapists treat clients at the center and in the hospital. Home visits are made to certain homebound people, as well as occasional visits to rural areas served by the team. Six orthopedic technicians (including trainees) fit prostheses and make and repair assistive devices (corsets, adapted chairs, walkers, etc.).

To ease the hardships faced by people with disabilities, the OWPC is developing rehabilitation services by capacity-building and partnering with people with disabilities (PWD), their families and communities. The Center has the capacity to provide physical therapy to 1,300 clients a year and to provide orthopedic and assistive devices to approximately 1,200 clients. The Center is expanding to serve the broad geographic area between Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat, along the northern border of Afghanistan.