The Minister of Social Solidarity, Isabel Amaral Guterres, payed a visit, last September 4th, to the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) – ASSERT (Assossiassaun hi’it Ema Raes Timor), in Becora, to closely check on the facilities that are available for disabled people.
Along with this visit, the Minister took the chance to provide the centre with some supporting material: axillar crutches (43), Canadian crutches (46), adults’ wheel chairs (42) children wheel chairs (45), which represents a total amount of 20,000 USD.
Isabel Amaral Guterres reminded that, previously, ASSERT used to act as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), but during the IV Constitutional Government, it became a public institute, under the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
The Minister anticipated, further, that the Government has already determined the budget allocated to NRC, so that it could implement its plan and programs, namely, to attend to the needs of disabled people.
According to the Centre’s Director-General, Rui Manuel Exposto, “it was necessary to adapt wheel chairs to the disabled people’s conditions so that they could move autonomously and displace themselves to their homes and to other places they would like to go to”.
The NRC is present in the communities in the districts, and nowadays is based in Same’s district and later it will also be in Ermera’s district. It prepares and incites disabled men and women to participate in basketball sporting competitions on wheelchairs, namely in the districts of Díli, Manatuto, Aileu, Ermera and Liquiçá, among others. Besides, it also makes other people sensitive to the rights of disabled people.
Until now, the Centre took advantage of the technical and financial support, from the Government of Timor-Leste and some Development Partners, such as SIBEM, JICA and AusAid.
The National Rehabilitation Centre empowers workers so that they can work with professionalism and quality and, at the same time, provide training to district facilitators, and also for them to have the ability to help children that are born with physical limitations.