Final report : Education and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children in Rusinowice

From the perspective of the children treated, their parents, and the entire rehabilitation community in southwest Poland, the Rusinowice Center is an unqualified success story worthy of emulation elsewhere. After only one year of operation (the Center opened in 6/94), and without yet being fully equipped, the Center"s treatment rates stands at 90 disabled children each month. In particular, the Center has offered disabled children with an alternative to life-long institutionalization by training parents to take on the role of rehabilitator in the home. The Center, located Silesia where health care problems are the most severe, treats children from all areas of Poland, and as of 5/95, there was a waiting list of over 3,000 children, so that a child needing treatment today would have to wait 3 years for that treatment. There is an obvious need to build a larger center or other centers serving additional geographic areas. Even more shocking may be the Center"s financial situation; the 1995 budget witnessed a 35% shortfall and the 1996 budget will further be reduced by 50%. The following are lessons learned. (1) In hindsight, it is evident that the Center should have been established sooner and that the amount of the grant is a mere drop in the ocean in terms of the need. (2) PACCF reserved a small amount of funds for transportation and storage costs of the material goods it donated as its cost-sharing, but found itself unable to pay duties and customs on these imports; local donations ultimately had to be used to release the goods. In-country costs such as customs should be brought out in the open from the beginning.