Apologies for the inconvenience. I have now fixed the links to the Ford Foundation page.

I just would like to thank you and others involved in this initiative to encourage the local organizaitons to attend the international relevant events.

Firoz
Afghanistan

I agree it would be good to know if representatives from DPOs in developing countries have been successful in obtaining funding from one of these three foundations. Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy way to access that kind of information. I do know that some people have been clicking on the links to the various three foundations. But any further communication that happens beyond that is then between the DPOs and the foundations themselves so I don’t have a way to know what happens after that.

If anyone reading this has had experience with one or more of the potential funding sources listed in this post or any other post at We Can Do, please do post a comment so I and others can know of it. (Click on “Funding” under “categories” in the right-hand navigation bar for more funding sources for other activities).

Can this also support African organisations?

As you correctly point out, many people don’t have Internet access. One organization, http://www.kabissa.org, is working to bridge that gap in Africa. In the meantime, I’m hoping that people who read We Can Do will help share pertinent information with their contacts who do not have access to the Internet.

As you point out, there are many barriers beside conference fees. I also had an interesting conversation via email with someone who pointed out to me two things:

1. It’s not only people from developing countries who are kept out by the high expense of attending conferences–people with disabilities in all countries, including rich countries, are more likely to be poor and therefore are also less likely to be able to afford high conference fees and travel and lodging expenses. Though the gap is not quite as large for them, it’s enough to keep them out.

And, 2. It’s not only the people who can’t afford to attend conferences who lose out. The people who DO go to the conference lose out too because then they don’t get to learn from the different perspectives that can be offered by people from developing nations, or from disabled people generally. The person who made this point to me was very correct and I should have said so in this post in the first place. I remember when I attended the Deaf Way II conference some years ago, being very disappointed that so many presentations that could have been very interesting had to be cancelled because the presenters (Deaf people from defveloping nations) couldn’t afford to come to the conference after all.