D&A launches support around the globe

As 80 per cent of people with disabilities live in the Global South, we are now working internationally to offer support around the world.

And we were excited to be invited by international NGO Global Rainbow Foundation in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning to deliver training to NGOs, SEN schools and PwD’s in Mauritius.

We caught up with Angel Anne-lise Charlot Colomès, Educational Psychologist/Project Manager at the charity, who shared her views about the project.

Angel said: “It was really enriching and helpful, especially the approach used during the workshop. It was different and new for people there. All of the participants were really impressed.

“Atif at D&A asked people to introduce themselves to other NGOS, which hadn’t been done before as during most workshops people only interact with the people they know.

“We had three visually impaired people there who enjoyed attending a workshop for the first time, as they could interact by using mentee.com. People could interact by asking questions on their screens. They really enjoyed that as they didn’t have to just rely on using their ears.

“People were asked about their lived experiences as carers and people with disabilities. There was a head of school who was blind and shared his whole life story which was really touching and how he became who he was today. Having experience of this was really new for us all, as people here don’t usually share their own experiences.

“This was also the first time we had training for inclusiveness and accessibility, which involved people with disabilities as usually, the training is just for employers. The focus on technology and relating that to technology for people with disabilities is completely new in Mauritius.

“After the training practitioners are more skilled now and can use what they’ve learnt in their daily practice. I work with visually impaired people and I think this will help me to work at a greater depth now. I watched how Robin from D&A rephrased certain things and used different language in the needs assessment which made it clearer for people to understand. This has given me the knowledge and a much deeper understanding of how I will carry out future needs assessments.

“All of the feedback forms say they would like to do more training with D&A, especially as we don’t have experts in Mauritius. Hopefully, we will be able to see D&A again and do more projects with them!”

To find out more about the support we offered Global Rainbow Foundation visit our case study.