The study evaluated the impact of a 6-years programme on community based rehabilitation of disabled persons in Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe by interviewing randomly selected clients and holding focus group discussion with community members. 61% of clients rated the rehabilitation process as very good, 10% as fair and 29% as poor. Suggestions from clients for improvement of services aimed at more information and training for family members and Village Community Workers and support for income generating projects to make clients economically independent.

Recommendations:

• Conduct 'Rehabilitation Awareness Workshops'
• Carry out household survey for patients in need of rehabilitation
• Treat people in need on the spot or refer to appropriate service
• Follow-up identified patients
• Initiate income generating activities

• six awareness workshops conducted
• four training workshops for Village Community Workers
• regular home visits conducted
• 21 income generating projects started
• WHO manual "Training in the Community for People with Disabilities" being translated into local languages 'Shona' and 'Ndebele'