In 2019, DCDD has awarded ‘small grants’ to four of its participants for the first time. With the assistance of an independent jury, Dorcas, SOFT tulip, Liliane Foundation and Tunafasi were chosen as the four winning initiatives to carry out projects that promote disability inclusion in low- and middle-income countries. Recently, Dorcas and SOFT tulip concluded their ‘small grant’ activities in Egypt and Ukraine. It is great to see the important steps towards disability inclusion they have been able to promote in their partner countries! Read their exciting updates below.
SOFT tulip: Promoting the successful support for inclusion and de-institutionalization of people with disabilities in Ukraine
On September 19, 2019 the book “Making a Change; SOFT tulip in Ukraine 2006 – 2019” was launched. This bilingual (Dutch-English) publication tells the stories of those who have been involved in special collaboration over the last 15 years: a close cooperation between rehabilitation workers in The Netherlands and Ukraine to support the inclusion and de-institutionalisation of people with disabilities. A journey facilitated by SOFT tulip, bringing healthcare institutions, families and policy makers closer together.
The book gives insight in the approach, the process and the results of this collaboration. Based on this book, a short video was produced with the help of DCDD’s small grant. The video helps to further promote the strategy and results in the field of de-institutionalization and inclusion of people with disabilities among a larger and younger audience.
While the first video was in Dutch, a Ukrainian version of the video has also been produced.
The Dutch – Ukrainian version of the film will be used in Ukraine in an international online conference on the progress of the development of Early Childhood Intervention (ECI). This will take place on October 8, 2020. On the longer run the small film is a great instrument for promotion and will be further used by SOFT tulip in meetings and (online) events.
Dorcas: Together we can do more
Through the disability network in El Minia (Egypt), which consists of 15 DPOs and NGOs, a series of meetings were held since December 2019. Both people with disabilities and government officials were well represented in these meetings. In the beginning of 2020, numerous training sessions were organized to NGOs under the topic “Inclusive development”. Moreover, towards publishing their own contextualized manual, the network held several meetings and outreach initiatives to gather assessments, practical examples, recommendations and lessons learnt. They are currently reviewing the constitution articles related to disability and are contacting legal and other stakeholders for a better in-depth understanding and to follow up on some recent advancements achieved by the government towards the wellbeing of persons with disabilities.
Along these meetings, the network succeeded to finalize their play script for a ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ performance. Persons with several kinds of disabilities (e.g. visual or hearing impairments and people with mental and physically disabilities) are currently rehearsing for the performance, which will address a wide audience, including government authorities and community members. Unfortunately, the rehearsals were interrupted by the outbreak of the Corona virus. However, the Theatre of the Oppressed will be performed on September 4th with limited audience (because of the COVID situation) and will be documented on film. The audience will be able to join the performance via zoom and will be allowed to interact as well. We look forward sharing the final (translated) version with you!
Curious about the project results of Tunafasi and Liliane Foundation? You can find them in our earlier newspost.
