INTRODUCTION
Urban poor areas are found nearly in all developing countries. Bwaise is an example of an urban poor area, located 4 Km north of Kampala City in Uganda. Most people in this area have to do menial jobs to earn a living and live in small rented houses. CBR workers in this area face the challenge of ensuring successful CBR among people whose priority is to earn a living. This article gives an overview of the general economic situation in Bwaise, how poverty affects the implementation of CBR in the area and suggests solution to some of the concerns.

Major sources of income and people’s economic status
CBR workers in urban poor areas need to understand the economic situation of the people they work with. They should understand people’s major sources of income and employment status in order to give affordable solutions to persons with disabilities.

People living in Bwaise do many different jobs to earn a living. These include selling food in markets; running small retail shops; carpentry; shoe repairing and frying pancakes. Each of these jobs has a specific time for operation: either the whole day, morning, evening or at night. For example, those selling foodstuffs in markets have to buy the products for selling early in the morning from the main market and then transport these to their stall. They have to stay by their stalls for the whole day attending to customers. Those frying pancakes are mainly busy in the morning. This has implications for family support of disabled persons and for CBR workers and their interaction with the community.

CBR workers can understand the major sources of income in an area in a number of ways, which may include the following:

Observing major economic activities in the area
Many CBR workers live in the areas in which they work, so they are usually aware of the different activities people do to earn a living. Visiting these places of work can give them a better basis to advise disabled people on viable businesses.

Carrying out individual interviews
CBR workers can carry out individual interviews to increase their understanding of the economic status of the people in the area in which they work. For this to be clear, they can interview people with and without disabilities and the parents of children with disabilities. These should be simple interviews focusing on the type of work they do; status of employment (employed, self-employed or not employed); the time of the day they work and where they work.

Carrying out group discussions
Group discussions are another means that CBR workers can use to understand the economic situation of the people they work with. Focus group discussions will give them an opportunity to probe for more information and members of the group are able to build on each other’s contributions and also learn from one another.

Facilitating improvement of income among Persons with disabilities while ensuring that parents still have time for their children with disabilities.
Noting that earning a living is a priority among the urban poor, including those with disabilities, CBR workers should help disabled persons to improve their income. While considering improving income, CBR workers need to be extra conscious that parents of children with disabilities still have time for their children. Working at home is one alternative that enables parents to give the relevant rehabilitative interventions to their children with disabilities while earning an income. Organizing training in Income Generating Activities (IGA's) might help to achieve this.

Training in Income Generating Activities
Training in IGA's will enable disabled persons and parents of children with disabilities to identify viable businesses and sources of funds to improve their income. Training can focus on starting a business or improving existing businesses.

If CBR workers lack the skills for running such training, they can collaborate with other organizations involved in such activities. Furthermore, the formation of support groups will facilitate CBR implementation while improving income generation among persons with disabilities.

Formation of support groups
The formation of support groups is vital for identifying solutions to the problems faced by people with disabilities. This can be achieved through mobilizing disabled persons and parents of children with disabilities. Group formation is often recommended on a gender basis, so that women’s and men’s issues are tackled separately. Parents of children with disabilities can also form their own groups because their concerns might be different. Group members will be able to share their social or economic needs and develop appropriate solutions. Consequently, they will actively participate and together with the CBR workers, identify solutions to problems such as accessibility.

Devise affordable means of improving accessibility in the home environment
Most people in Bwaise do not own houses but rent small rooms, whereby one room may serve as a living room, bedroom, store and even kitchen. There are no compounds, just the space between one house and the next, which may only be one metre. As a tenant, you do not have the right to modify the architectural work of the premises you live in. Furthermore, unlike rural areas where people have access to locally available materials such as wood, all materials have to be bought in urban areas.

There is a need to be conscious about house ownership, availability of space and affordability of materials, while improving accessibility in urban poor areas. The solution to this will be for the CBR worker to consider constructing affordable and portable devices. These can be kept aside and put in place when needed. For example, a wooden board placed over steps can be used for a ramp; a toilet seat can be placed in a latrine when it is needed. As CBR workers tackle the issue of accessibility, they also need to sensitize relevant people in the community to include disability in all community programmes.

Sensitizing teachers in schools affordable by parents of children with disabilities
Most parents in Bwaise can not afford educating their children with disabilities. Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools are few; private schools can be found everywhere and often more accessible. On the other hand special schools, which have the capacity, are not affordable. The majority of teachers in the mainstream schools in Uganda have limited skills to teach these children. Although there are many schools in Bwaise, the affordable schools often do not want to admit children with disabilities. In addition they have excuse of space, accessibility and fear that the presence of such children might affect achievements of the other children and the reputation of the school.

Case study

Adam a seven-year-old child with cerebral palsy is among the clients for the Bwaise CBR Programme. Adam benefited from the home programmes and day care where children with disabilities and their parents converged once a week for rehabilitative services. These services included physiotherapy (exercises), training mothers/parents, sharing information and experiences and children had an opportunity to play.

Presently Adam uses a wheelchair and all family members like him and the siblings take him around for walks or even to watch football. Although Adam feels happy he always tells the parents that he wants to go to school, he is tired of staying at home.

The mother has approached the project staff for advice. Although the Kampala School for Physically Handicapped has all facilities for the physically disabled children to attend school, Adam’s parents cannot afford the school fees.

Adam’s mother tried to secure a place for him in nearby schools, but received negative responses. In most cases the school authorities gave excuse that the school has no facilities for children with disabilities and that the other children will be diverted from concentrating on their studies and be carried away by Adam’s disability. This has frustrated Adam’s parents.

At one time Adam’s mother confronted the project staff saying; “Look it is like COMBRA made Adam climb a tree and let him up without getting to the top. Now am stranded what can I do?”

This indicates the need to sensitize schools in the nearby school to accept children with disabilities.

Workshops for teachers in local schools can serve to sensitize them on; rights of children to education; disability issues with particular emphasis on attitude and accessibility in general. This should increase the enrolment of disabled children