Inside the doors where people with disabilities receive support for a better life

The paintings hanging on the wall were donated by the parents as a sign of gratitude.

Every day, they bring their children to these spaces.

The same people receive a variety of services and pay nothing for it.

All this, thanks to the organization "Association of Paraplegics and Child Paralysis in Kosovo", known as HANDIKOS, which aims to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities and provide social services for them.

The same mission as the organization is shared by physiotherapist Jehona Sllamniku, who, like this child, also provides therapy to 32 other children per week, with sessions lasting 45 minutes.

"Each child here in our organization has an individual work plan. The objectives I worked on with this child were exercises for maintaining body musculature and flexibility, exercises for raising the head, as well as exercises for fine motor skills or hand skills, which is reaching for objects," said Sllamniku.

The physiotherapy services they provide contribute to the independence of people with disabilities by making their lives easier.

"For children in our organization, physiotherapy is one of the main services that affects the well-being of children by improving motor function, affecting their independence and improving the quality of life. In total, in our service, a total of 32 children receive services within a week, where the session lasts 45 minutes and where each child has an individual work plan," she added.

Jehona has shown that after a period of 3 months, the condition of people receiving therapy improves significantly.

"Until it comes to the individual work plan, we go through a process that is done through an evaluation card that is divided into domains, where in that domain is the physiotherapy plan. There are objectives specified depending on age. I am referring to the child I was also providing the service to, the objectives for this child are exercises to maintain muscle mass and flexibility, as well as head raising. After a period of 3 months, we notice that we have influenced the improvement of the body's muscle mass, flexibility, the prevention of deformities or contractures, we have influenced the improvement of  "The stability and strength of the neck, trunk and back muscles, which affect the child's ability to hold their head independently, cannot be achieved within a 3-month period, but we are working and influencing to reach that goal," she added.

Kaltërina Misini from HANDIKOS has shown that in addition to therapies, their decades-long work includes many services, being close to children from an early age.

"HANDIKOS supports and works with people with disabilities in Kosovo, our work is spread in two directions: advocating for the rights of people with disabilities and providing social services to the community for which we have been working for decades. On a daily basis, it provides social services and is the only open door for these services," she said.

During 2025, HANDIKOS has also provided door-to-door support to those people who, for many reasons, have not been able to leave their homes.

To empower families, HANDIKOS has supported them with active involvement in the process of growth and development.

In last year's project, there were nearly 500 families assessed and 261 beneficiaries.

"It has been a very welcome and very effective program which is supported by UNICEF and funded by the Government of Luxembourg...", she added.

HANDIKOS's biggest challenge remains the unsustainability of projects and financing, because then the services stop halfway and as a result, all the work suffers.  regression.

To date, HANDIKOS has survived mainly with international support, while support from state institutions remains more short-term and rare.

Otherwise, HANDIKOS is continuing to regularly provide assistive devices to people with paraplegic and tetraplegic status, including adaptation, assembly and distribution according to individual needs.

The application is made at the Specialist Ambulance at UCCK. The assessment is carried out by a commission of the Ministry of Health.