Disability and inclusion - Inclusive communication for disability: strengthening South-to-South communication
Overview
A number of our partners wanted to develop a stronger Southern based disabiity movement and five organisations came together with the aim of strengthening their capacity through South-to-South learning, information exchange and networking.
These partners were:
- Southern African Federation of Disabled People (SAFOD)
- The Social Assistance and Rehabilitation for the Physically Vulnerable ( SARPV)
- Blind Peoples Association (BPA)
- Amar Jyoti
- FACAPH ( Fédération d’Afrique Centrale des Associations pour les Personnes Handicapées)
Our partner's believe that too often disabled people are excluded from participation in society. Frequently their voices are not heard and they have few opportunities to influence decisions on the policies and services that affect their lives.
Communication within communities and societies can exclude disabled people and information flows tend to focus on North-North or North-to-South information exchange. This project set out to support Southern based Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) to increase their influence over social policies, practicies and public attitudes in Africa and Asia.
The four year project was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and began in 2002.
Participatory photo training
The project included a number of practical activities. One example is the
photography training with young disabled people in Asia and Africa. This
work was done in collaboration with PhotoVoice, and exhibitions were
held in Bangladesh, Cameroon and the UK. A library of positive disability
images for use by project partners is underway. This is in response to
feedback from partners who find it difficult to access images of disabled
people that portray positive images and are culturally appropriate for
use in an African and Asian setting.
The phototgraphy work helped young people with disabilities to share information about their lives and lead to a wider audience engaging with disability issues.
See the PhotoVoice page for more information
Advocacy and good practice
Disseminating lessons learned and good practice with other regions was
central to the project. To support this the newsletter, Disability Dialogue,
which had been last printed in the early 00's was re-issued.
SAFOD took responsibility for developing the newsletter in response to
the many requests from readers interested in this valuable means of South-to-South
information exchange and learning.
Exchange visits and meetings between the partners were encouraged and supported. This helped the exchange of material and resources between regions and the sharing of experiences and learning.