Listings starting with D

India’s Dalits have recently taken drastic strides toward social equality and economic empowerment through our partner’s nationwide movement to establish customised education centres.  In these centres, Dalits can attain employable skills to carry them out of the poverty trap that their lineage has suffered under for so long.

Approximately 80% of deaf Ugandans cannot read or write and 70% cannot count to 10.  In the past, few deaf children have been given the opportunity to go to school, and those who did usually sat uncomprehending and ignored.

There are an estimated 100 000 people living in the Philippines who are ‘hard of hearing’.  This means they can only understand words when spoken very loudly close to the ear and have severe difficulties if there are ambient noises.

In a country devastated by years of guerilla militia and political upheaval, the rights and opportunities of children with disabilities have fallen by the wayside on governmental agendas.  This school project assists hearing impaired children gain skills necessary for productive lives.

As is typical of most developing countries, the majority of deaf Filipino children are excluded from educational institutions because of economic, cultural or logistical barriers.  The choices for the poor are stark: they can either attend the local school where they are likely to fail unless concerted efforts are made to include them, or they can evade a formal education and accept little prospect of fulfilling a prosperous career.    

Much work has been done to standardise Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) so that the deaf across the whole nation can understand and communicate with one another, from Kisumu in the West to Mombasa in the East.  Now KSL is taught to an estimated 2 600 deaf children in 32 specialty primary schools.

As 15% of Pacific Islanders (1 million people) live with a disability, it is impossible for universal education and poverty reduction targets to be met without their inclusion.  In most of these countries, few people with disabilities attend school as children and even fewer can find stable employment as adults.  Not only are disabilities highly stigmatised, but affordable service provision is hard to come by.

In the remote foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, access to healthcare is extremely limited and specialised disability services are virtually non-existent.  An estimated 3 million Tanzanians have a disability, of which far too many are consequently excluded from mainstream schooling and employment. 

The disabled and homeless are amongst the most underprivileged people living below the poverty line in Nepal.  Unfortunately, a fatalistic attitude toward future employment and wellbeing is widespread, leading to internal despair and external exclusivity.

Natural disasters are inevitable.  Strategies of emergency risk reduction can go a long way in building community level resilience against the forces of nature, yet the impact of natural disaster rips right through communities which lack funding and local expertise.

Many Mongolian women are suffering in silence as domestic violence sweeps the nation in endemic proportions.  National statistics reveal that as many as one in three have been victims of such abuse at least once in their life.