Direct Support
Direct Support: In Pakistan, there is no mechanism available for providing social security to the PWDs in general and severely disabled persons specifically, so the question arises here that how to meet the expenses on accessibility devices. Good quality assistive devices are very costly and it is difficult for the PWDs to purchase them.
Prevailing social security system very minimally caters the needs of PWDs. There is a long process of getting a disability certificate for an eligible disabled person to get social support, only then one disabled person can apply for an assistive device which normally takes at least 2 years. And by luck if they get the assistive device, that is not according to their need. This scenario becomes more problematic for the persons with disability with a chance in increase of the level of disability among them.
Secondly, there is no facility for caring of those persons who have severe disability after their parents or the caretakers in the family die or leave them for one reason to another. So attendant service is also needed by those marginalized persons with disabilities.
One of the core objectives of STEP is to strengthen local Disabled Persons Organization (DPOs) in order to capacities them to cater the needs of the PWDs in their respective areas through direct support program. Those organizations which are working on the poverty, they should be strengthened so that they should also cater the needs of the persons with disabilities.