In these COVID times of lockdowns and social distancing, WhatsApp has emerged as a powerful tool for activism, outreach, and monitoring among DRF grantees. In Indonesia, this free encrypted messaging app has united disability rights activists across the country and has helped organize collective actions on key issues – entirely online. “In Indonesia, grantees are … Read more…
While the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other Black Americans have made police brutality and the systemic racism that perpetuates it to mainstream consciousness, we at the Disability Rights Fund and Disability Rights Advocacy Fund know this is not new. Some of our staff, our family members, our friends, and our … Read more…
Through press releases and public service announcements that have aired on more than 60 radio stations across the country, the MUB Executive Director is spreading the word that no one can be left behind during this pandemic. Among Kumwenda’s recommendations – public health information about COVID-19 must be released in a diversity of accessible formats, … Read more…
In Jakarta alone, Damayanti knows of some 2500 persons with psychosocial disabilities locked inside public and private facilities. She has no idea if or how many may be infected with the coronavirus. Social care administrators, particularly at private institutions, haven’t been forthcoming about what is actually happening behind closed doors. “There is no effort to … Read more…
Soaps, sanitizer, all these things were required and people did not even know what sanitizer means, what social distancing means, what does quarantine mean.” Gurung is the president of the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal (NIDWAN Nepal) and the general secretary of the Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network (IPWDGN). NIDWAN Nepal recently worked … Read more…