Evaluation report 2004 China Polio Project

Background:
In the 1980s, there was a big epidemic of polio that broke out in Pi Zhou area due to flooding and the polluted water. About 600 children in age of new born to 3 years old were affected by the epidemic disease. As a result, these children were paralyzed with either one leg or two legs. This caused a great intention to the society. Under the care and support of the leaders in different levels of the government and under the cooperation of the Amity Foundation and the Norwegian Mission Alliance, a group of volunteers were organized and they set up the New Hope Center - the Rehabilitation Resource Center for providing a comprehensive medical, educational and vocational rehabilitation services for the children. The project has been taking place for the past 15 years.

Purpose/objective:
The evaluation was a mid-term evaluation conducted in order to guide the future work and what was the last period with Norad funding in cooperation with NMA. The evaluation report consists of three separated reports. These address the physical status of the polio victims, the general development of the children, and an assessment of the microcredit program.

Methodology:
The physical status of the children: The survey included 333 polio victims. Five groups consisting of two physiatrists and one therapist carried out the assessments.

The assessment of the general development of the children: This investigation has been done on 500 children in random and collected 427questionaries. Of them, 212 were polio children as the experimental group and 215 ordinary children as the comparative group.

The evaluation report on the microcredit program: A total of 40 clients were interviewed in the field, which covers about 20% of total clients. 40 copies of a questionnaire were completed, along with a set of facts about income and expenditure. On July 8th, a group workshop was conducted in Economic Promotion Association (EPA) with the participants from EPA and NHC.

Key findings and recommendations:
The physical status of the children: The improvement of the physical function of polio victims in the group is significant, there is a great potential to make further improvement of physical function through surgical intervention, orthosis modification and rehabilitation training, a multi-disciplinary team is essential to have a better outcome.

The assessment of the general development of the children:

1. Keeping on the road of “Community Based Rehabilitation”
The fact found in the investigation also shows that although the polio children in the community experimental group did not receive the special care as the institutional experimental group did, their developments in various aspects are as good as the children in the institutional experimental group, and even surpass the institutional experimental group in some indexes. Therefore we think that the concept of “Community Based Rehabilitation” must be adhered. The polio children should be encouraged to actively enter the community and a good interaction between them should be established, to facilitate the polio children to better understand the society, adapt to the society and merge themselves into the society.

2. Strengthening the educational work on the mental health
On one hand, the training of the teachers should be carried out to improve their understanding on their work and teaching techniques. Then they can help the polio children, by using effective psychological consulting techniques and the relevant knowledge, to deal with the psychological confusions and conflicts they come cross in their daily lives. On the other hand, the various activities of the education on the mental health should be carried out further, to raise the level of the mental health of the polio children, and to build up their abilities to withstand the mental illness.

3. Building up a comprehensive rehabilitation working system.
In the practical work, we usually attach importance with the rehabilitation of the polio children’s disabled limbs, while the work on their psychological development does not receive sufficient attention. Therefore, we need further clarify the concept on the rehabilitation work, pay a close attention to the development of the polio children comprehensively. When we are rehabilitating the polio children’s disabled limbs, we should strengthen the educational work on their mental health. In all the links from setting up the guiding principle, working up the work plan to placing the rehabilitation staffs, we need to put the work on the mental development of the polio children in an appropriate position, help them to take preventive measures for both physical and psychological rehabilitation.

The evaluation report on the microcredit program:
This MC program has been successfully implemented for nearly 6 years in Pi County, about
200 polio-families benefit from it. Although it has shortcomings in the project management, it still has great impact on the clients in terms of family income and social status, which exceeds the proposed aims of this program. However, important adjustments must be done in relation to organization and management, and several aspects of the microfinance model should be revised.

Comments from the organisation, if any: