SBPAC pushes plan for disability equipment bank in far South

>>Aiming to improve access to aids for disabled people in the far South, the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) is now leading an effort to set up a so-called disability equipment bank.

The disability equipment bank will serve as a centre supplying a wide range of mobility aids to the disabled in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, said Rachada Dhnadirek, a deputy government spokeswoman.

“The centre will be run by the SBPAC in coorporation with various other organisations including the Sirindhorn National Medical Rehabilitation Institute and provincial social development and human security offices,” she said. “While the centre will both collect disability aids from donors and produce them for disabled locals, those local healthcare providers will screen the people with disabilities and determine what aids they actually need.”

This disability equipment bank project follows another undertaking in which disabled children in the region were provided with various aids to help improve their mobility including a “happy chair”, an aid designed to help bed-ridden children get up from a lying position on their own.

In another development, the SBPAC together with the Association of Women with Disabilities Thailand is following up on an occupational promotion and training programme intended for disabled people in the southernmost provinces, said Ms Rachada. The programme now supports more than 1,000 disabled people with job training in areas such as chemical-free farming and producing hand-dyed fabrics.