Achieving Economic Self-Sufficiency for People with Disabilities through Mainstreaming

A wheelchair user learns how to produce wheelchairs himself at the Ragama Rehabilitation Hospital, Sri Lanka Photo: Motivation Charitable Trust

Implementing Partner: Motivation Charitable Trust

Funding Period: October 2009 – September 2012

Amount: $584,281

Purpose: Increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Objectives

• Place 300 people with disabilities in formal employment with local businesses.
• Provide 300 people with disabilities with vocational training and support entering formal or informal employment.
• Provide 300 people with disabilities with microfinance services, leading to the establishment of 300 microenterprises.
• Deliver an inclusion assessment for 90 organizations followed by a customized plan of training and intervention for each organization.

This project addresses the cycle of poverty and disability and the extreme exclusion of people with disabilities in the conflict-affected country of Sri Lanka. It does so by mainstreaming people with disabilities into formal employment, vocational training, and microfinance services. The target beneficiaries of the project include people with physical, visual, hearing, and intellectual impairments. These beneficiaries include people seeking both formal employment in local factories or businesses and informal employment through their own microenterprises. To achieve economic self-sufficiency, the project takes a two-pronged approach in both the formal and informal sector, providing training to both: 1) local businesses and economic development NGOs, and 2) people with disabilities themselves. This approach is vital to ensure that people with disabilities are ready for employment, and local employers and NGOs are equipped with inclusive practices to ensure people with disabilities are included on an equal basis. Ultimately the project will promote a climate of non-discrimination and equal-opportunity, in line with USAID disability policies. Another distinctive aspect of the program is that it is holistic, addressing several areas of economic empowerment, with different stakeholders.