KOSHISH means ‘making an effort’, and is the first mental health self-help organization in Nepal fighting to improve mental health policy, quality of care, and to challenge prejudice and discrimination suffered by people affected by mental illness. Matrika Devkota, founder of KOSHISH and a leading advocate on mental health issues, says that one of the […]
Berhan Lehetsanat (‘Children of Light’) is an Ethiopian NGO based in Addis Ababa, and a DDP partner since 2003. Their work is primarily with disabled children and focuses on education, health and livelihoods using a community-based development approach. Through the partnership with DDP, BL have enhanced the scope and scale of their work and have […]
Associação dos Jovens Deficientes de Moçambique, the national disabled youth association, has more than 2,000 members throughout Mozambique’s 11 provinces. AJODEMO is only too aware that disabled young people are often marginalised and denied the opportunities in education and employment that are so important to their life chances. AJODEMO is advocating for better services for disabled […]
Cantol Pondja is President and Coordinator of AJODEMO, the national Mozambique disabled youth association. Cantol gets around using callipers and crutches, having contracted polio in childhood. He is an inspiring role-model and an untiring advocate for disabled people in Mozambique. The video profile below is from the YouTube channel of Abilis Foundation in Finland. https://youtu.be/zx6PUVUrDDc
Sumitra was born with a club foot, but had corrective surgery at the age of ten, leaving her more confident and strong enough to handle physical work. The eldest of six siblings, Sumitra had to take responsibility for her family at a tender age. Today, as part of our Women-Led Disability-Inclusive Livelihood project (WDIL) with […]
Ntahorutari Samson fled to DRC with his mother and his sister when conflict intensified in Burundi in 1972. With his stepfather killed and conflicts erupting all over the Congo, he and his family crossed over to Tanzania. His mother’s mental health was failing and Samson organized repatriation papers to admit her to a mental hospital […]
Luisa belongs to a group selling telephone credits in Nhamatanda, Mozambique, established through our partner AJODEMO’s Disability Rights and Enterprise Training programme. Luisa has been disabled since a childhood accident, but never received any kind of assistive device, so she has always made do with a sturdy stick carved from a branch. Luisa, along with […]
Melaku is one of 8 deaf teaching assistants involved in our project on Improving education for deaf and hard of hearing children with DDIA in Ethiopia. When he started working at Adama School, there were no special educational needs (SEN) teachers or resources. Melaku worked with the school director Teshane to refurbish the disused library […]
Rahel and her husband Anteneh run a café near the busy Piassa area of Addis Ababa, set up through our project with DDIA on Improving income for deaf people. Previously they had set up a cybercafé, but demand plummeted due to the advent of smartphones. Undeterred, they attended training Along with other deaf people and […]
Matrika, himself a mental health patient, was not diagnosed until the age of 25, and it took another four years fully recover. He then chose to talk about his own experiences to de-stigmatise attitudes towards mental health in Nepal, and very quickly became a respected advocate speaking on national TV channels across Nepal. Matrika founded […]