In low income countries, people who sustain a spinal cord injury are usually provided with acute care and then discharged home with little access to support services. Not surprisingly, they go on to develop life-threatening complications and often die prematurely. It seems likely that most of these complications could be prevented and treated with education and simple, inexpensive interventions. We have proposed a low-cost and sustainable community-based model of care for people who have returned home after spinal cord injury in low-income countries. The model of care involves regular telephone-based monitoring and provision of ongoing education and advice with a limited home-based service. The CIVIC trial will determine the effectiveness (in terms of mortality, complications of spinal cord injury and quality of life) and cost-effectiveness of this model of community-based care.