World Physiotherapy is proud to be one of the founding members of the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA). This milestone was acknowledged at the launch of the WRA on 12 July 2023 in Geneva.
Speakers at the launch included:
- Alarcos Cieza, unit head, sensory functions, disability and rehabilitation, for WHO
- Emilia Clarke, actress and founder of SameYou, a charity working to develop better recovery treatment for survivors of brain injury and stroke
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general
Ricky Kej a three-times Grammy Award-winning and three-times Grammy nominated Indian music composer and environmentalist, performed a short concert, including his song Rehabilitate, to celebrate rehabilitation.
Watch the performance by Ricky Kej at the launch
The WRA meeting took place, 12 and 13 July 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland, and online.
The objectives of the meeting were to:
- Ensure all WRA members have a clear understanding of WRA’s vision and mission, and WRA’s available resources and processes
- Develop a clear plan to operationalise each workstream’s 2-year workplan
- Ensure all WRA members have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities
- Identify priority next steps for WRA members, steering committee, and secretariat.
The workstreams bring together members with similar interests, share information, and collectively work on specific activities that align with the WRA’s overall mission and objectives.
Each workstream will have an area of focus with corresponding workplan. WRA’s five workstreams:
- Workforce
- Primary care
- Research
- Emergencies
- External relations
World Physiotherapy staff participated in the research and workforce workstreams, Alberta Rockson, Africa region executive committee member, co-chaired the emergencies workstream, and Emma Stokes, president 2019-2023, co-chaired the external relations workstream.
