New Zealand Rehabilitation Association, Inc.

I stumbled across this website while looking for links to international organisations involved in rehabilitation.  Interestingly the World Rehabilitation Fund (WRF) has been around since 1955, being first founded by Howard R. Rusk – an American physician who has been called by some (in US texts at any rate!) the father of modern rehabilitation.  Incidentally, Howard Rusk was very active in developing and promoting rehabilitation services from the 1940’s through to the 1980’s, before dying in 1989.

The WRF describes itself as ‘the pioneer organization devoted to the development and implementation of rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities throughout the world.’  The WRF focuses most of its work on assisting indigenous communities in developing countries to establish and strengthen their own capacity for providing rehabilitation.  This work includes training rehabilitation providers and a focus on rehabilitation issues that are particularly relevant to such developing countries: e.g. rehabilitation services for victims of land-mines, vocational training etc.  The WRF’s work currently centres on Cambodia, Lebanon and Sierra Leone.  The website provides details about their accomplishments and future projects in these areas.

So, if you are a health professional who likes the idea of doing some volunteer work aboard in countries historically associated with ‘travel warnings’, perhaps this is the website for you!