Resources, Toolkits, and Funding

• Finding organizations
• Resources for inclusive development
• Resources on the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• Case studies
• Funding Sources, Fellowships, and Scholarships
• Other helpful resources

Don’t see what you want here? Consult “Navigating We Can Do,” always available in the top navigation bar, for more assistance, or try a key word search.

I’m not completely satisfied with how I have organized the information on this page. I would like to improve upon it so that it will be easier for readers like YOU to quickly find the information you need. Please feel free to share your feedback or suggestions in the comments area below.

This page updated through 14 April 2008

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Finding organizations

• Mainstream international development agencies sometimes say that they don’t know how to find people with disabilities, or their representative organizations, in the developing countries where they work. Reviewing the post entitled Finding Local Disability Organizations may help point you in the right direction. Also see Disability Organizations in Afghanistan, Asia, Kenya, Uganda; Disability Kenya; African Union of the Blind; and a listing of disabled women’s organizations in Pacific-Asia.
• Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) sometimes aren’t sure where to find mainstream development organizations and resources that might be willing to collaborate with them.
• There is an international network of organizations for families of people with Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome.

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Resources for Inclusive Development

Both disability advocates and mainstream development organizations want to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind when countries and organizations fight poverty or improve public health, education, water, and other services. But it can be a challenge to figure out how to make projects, government policies, and infrastructure more inclusive. The following resources can help:

• A new on-line handbook offers guidance on including disabled people in the fight against poverty in developing countries.
• Some of the materials at the African Union of the Blind web site may be of interest to people who wish to be more inclusive of blind people in HIV/AIDS education efforts.
• People can join a network for people interested in exchanging information about emergency (disasters) and disability
• A handbook for making water and sanitation accessible to people with disabilities offers guidance particularly to professionals in the water supply and sanitation services sectors, but can also be helpful to disability advocates, disabled people, and their families.
• Several different resources are available for helping your organization become more inclusive of disabled women–of interest for both women’s organizations and international development agencies.
• People can join an email network for people who share an interest in inclusive education in Eastern Africa
• The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project wants to put an XO laptop into the hands of every child attending primary school in developing countries. Some people on-line are working to make the XO laptop accessible to children with disabilities.
• Making Poverty Reduction Strategies Inclusive: for disability advocates and other individuals or organizations that want to help national government policies become more inclusive of disabled people when they fight poverty. This handbook can be downloaded for free.
• Handbook on Mainstreaming Disability, for mainstream international development organizations written by Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). Download for free.
• An On-line book on Universal Design and Visitability can be downloaded for free.

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Resources on the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

By now, you may be aware that a global movement is taking place to ratify the international disability rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Many relevant resources are now being produced in relation to the CRPD, some of which have been posted or featured here at We Can Do:

• A new International Diploma in Mental Health Law and Human Rights has been launched; the first one-year training program will start in Pune, India in October 2008. The application deadline to enter the first class is June 15, 2008.
• A new Training Manual on Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities gives some broad advice on how trainers may wish to help train other individuals on human rights, using the CRPD. (This post also reminds readers of other CRPD-related training materials for different needs.)
• Countries that plan to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities may first need to revise their laws and legislations. Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) can turn to a resource on developing civil rights law for disabled people in your country to help ensure that resulting laws will be consistent with the CRPD and their human rights.
• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has launched a web site meant to strengthen the work of the UN OHCHR on disability-related issues–including, but not limited to, the CRPD.
• The University of Minnesota Human Rights Center has developed a Training Manual in Disability Human Rights, entitled “Human Rights YES!” which is based heavily on the CRPD. The manual can be used by individuals with disabilities to train themselves and their peers about their human rights and how to advocate for themselves.
• The World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP) have developed a guide on implementing the disability rights treaty for users and survivors of psychiatry.
• Link to a page that can point you at various resources you can use to educate yourself about the international disability rights treaty (CRPD), whether you have just 5 minutes to spend or a few hours.
• Read the CRPD “translated” into plain English.
• UNICEF has developed a child-friendly version of the CRPD to help children understand disability rights
• Disabled People International offers two toolkits on ratifying and implementing the CRPD for disability advocates who want to help ensure that all disabled people have their human rights recognized.
• A handbook on disability rights targeted at parliamentarians can help parliamentarians, people who work in close contact with government agencies, and disability advocates in general, better understand the CRPD.
• The United Nations’ new web site, UN Enable, is one of the best, and most official, places to find information on the CRPD.
• Handicap International has produced its own Teaching Kit on the CRPD.
• The International Disability Equality Agency (IDEA) has issued Equalize It! A Manifesto for Disability Equality in Development Cooperation that expresses their position on how to ensure disability equality in the international development field.
• Before a country can fully ratify the CRPD, it must make its laws consistent with this international treaty. When preparing a new set of national policies affecting people with disabilities, law makers and disability advocates may find it helpful to consult other disability-related laws and legal resources from around the world for comparison purposes.

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Case Studies

Reviewing case studies of projects implemented elsewhere can be a valuable source of ideas that could help you figure out how to run or implement your own projects. I would love to post many more best-practice and failed-practice case studies. If you think you have something worth sharing, please check my Wish List of Written Materials and Resource and contact me at ashettle [at] patriot.net.

For now, here are two case studies:

• A Case Study about an Early intervention program for blind children in Russia
• a collection of short case summaries of projects for deaf children in Burkino Faso, Zimbabwe, Somaliland, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and India

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Funding Sources, Fellowships, and Scholarships

• Deaf Child Worldwide is offering Small grants for projects for deaf children in certain countries of eastern Africa, South Asia (not India), and the Andean region of Latin America. The application deadline is May 30, 2008.
• The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering 800 fellowship awards that would allow participants to lecture or research in one of more than 130 countries around the world during the 2009-2010 academic year. The application deadline is August 1, 2008.
• A guide provides various tips for Disabled People Organizations (DPOs) on how to raise funds.
• UNESCO is offering funding for a few of the most innovative projects submitted by organizations who share success stories. The deadline to apply for the limited funding available is March 31 2008. Organizations may continue to submit success stories after the deadline but only for the purpose of exchanging knowledge, not for funding.
• An international essay competition is open to young people aged 18 to 25. YOUR practical ideas are wanted. The theme is “Shaping the City of Your Dreams.” The deadline is March 23, 2008. Cash prizes are available for $5000 and $1000 (US dollars).
• Funding may be available to support projects that work to prevent vision impairments. The application deadline is April 30, 2008. Note that the funding source involved holds a funding competition each year. The deadline is always April 30. However, the theme for the competition is different each year.
• Funding may be available to help with projects creating universal access to safe water and sanitation; the application deadline is March 26, 2008.
• The organization UN Watch is offering a working fellowship to strong writers with an interest in international issues; the application deadline is April 1, 2008, and the fellowship placement begins September 1, 2008.
• The Development Marketplace 2008 is holding a funding competition for projects related to sustainable agriculture for development. The application deadline is March 31, 2008.
• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) may have some funding for DPOs, NGOs, or other entities to be used for disability inclusion.
• The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has come out with a resource that could help women’s organizations find funding.
• The Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support (WINGS) Global Fund for Community Foundations makes grants of up to $50,000 USD to emerging and developing community foundations or support organizations in developing countries. Note that these funds are NOT meant for individual non-government organizations (NGOs) but for small FOUNDATIONS or organizations meant to SUPPORT NGOs.
• Looking for funding to attend an international or local conference? three organizations have some limited funds available for conference participation from developing countries; two of these are focused on Latin America, but the first one listed (the Ford Foundation) covers other regions as well.
• The United Nations Democracy Fund holds an annual competition for funding applications for projects to promote better democratic participation. The 2007 deadline was December 18. Review their information carefully and consider preparing early for their next funding round in 2008.

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources

Other Helpful Resources

• A new Disability web portal has launched that helps people with disabilities in India find jobs, films, publications, information about disability-related laws in India, and other informational resources.
• the African Union of the Blind web site has a range of information and resources of interest to people involved with self-empowerment efforts among blind people in Africa. Of particular interest are materials related to HIV/AIDS, women, and youth.
• The Disability Kenya web site has news, opinion pieces, and some helpful resources including a model of a successful funding grant proposal, and health-related information including HIV/AIDS and rape.
• The UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) gives organizations a way to learn from each other’s success stories.
• The Human Rights Education Associates has launched a new information and education network for individuals involved with human rights.
• The AIR Foundation has introduced an on-line service to make the web more accessible to people with visual impairments.
• A training manual can help young Africans with disabilities become leaders in preventing HIV/AIDS; the manual can be downloaded in Word format for free.
• A training manual for African journalists can help them more actively include disability issues in their mainstream news coverage; written from a human rights perspective. May also be helpful to journalists in other regions, or to disability advocates who work with journalists.
• An on-line tool makes it easier to research the human rights record of various businesses toward people with disabilities
• Low-cost Mechanical Braille Writers could give poor blind people in developing countries more options for writing in Braille.
• The Hesperian Foundation has books that can help poor people in developing countries take better care of their health and raise their disabled children.
• A set of Recommendations on how to empower people with intellectual disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region was developed at a conference held in the region in October 2007.
• A dictionary for Sri Lankan Sign Language has been published.
• A new device functions as a screen reader or magnifier for blind people in developing countries: this Sightsavers’ Dolphin Pen is cheaper than the standard screen readers used in industrialized countries. That helps bring it within reach of a wider number of blind people even in countries where the average income is very low.

Top of this page; Finding organizations; Resources for inclusive development; CRPD resources; Case studies; Funding sources; Other helpful resources




---

Learn how to receive an email alert when new material is posted at We Can Do.