Social inclusion

To enable social inclusion of people with disabilities, Sightsavers has concentrated its focus around three core areas: economic empowerment, strengthening Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) and creating an enabling environment. Sightsavers thus supports people with disability through livelihood interventions and facilitates the formation and capacity building of DPOs to carry out effective advocacy for their rights on all platforms and levels.

We work to change the attitudes of communities, schools and governments by ensuring they adopt socially inclusive policies towards people with disabilities so that they are treated with dignity and are not denied their rights to appropriate healthcare, education and income.

Social inclusion for people with disabilities like blindness or visual impairment means ensuring they get equal rights and face no discrimination, especially with regard to education, healthcare and income.

We work to ensure that the government implements its obligations under international conventions towards people who are visually impaired or blind. Aside from healthcare support, we promote social inclusion through:

Rehabilitation

• We work to equip people with disabilities with the skills (daily living, vocational training, etc.), tools and assistance they need to earn a living and lead an independent life.