According to the World Bank, one person in ten has a disability and more than three quarters of disabled people live in developing countries.  Disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty and disabled people account for as many as one in five of the world’s poorest people.  
 
Stigma and denial of basic rights limits many disabled people’s access to education and employment and causes them to be economically and socially excluded.  UNICEF estimates that only 2% of disabled children in poor countries have access to education or rehabilitation services.  In many countries in Africa, disabled people are often hidden away by their families or reduced to a life of begging on the street, condemned as cursed or useless by those around them.

Advantage Africa believes that disabled people should be fully included in the life of their communities.  Our approach borrows from the social model of disability, which says that society should change the attitudes and structures that discriminate against disabled people, rather than the medical model, which aims to ‘cure’ disabilities.  This is why, wherever possible, we promote special schools for children with learning disabilities not as separate institutions, but as units with specialist facilities and staff within mainstream primary schools.  Ben Kithua, the Headmaster at Mitaboni Primary School where Advantage Africa is supporting the inclusion of disabled children, is passionate about this.  He says ‘the children attending the unit mix with the primary school children and don’t feel different or isolated anymore’.  His colleague, social worker Francis Mutua says ‘I’m happy that people are changing to understand that we mustn’t see these children as any less special or important’.

Development institutions such as the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and the United Nations agree that to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people, disabled people must be able to participate fully in their communities, obtain a fair share of the benefits and claim their rights as full and equal members of society.  Advantage Africa, with its focus on people ‘doubly disadvantaged’ by poverty and disability, is working with inspirational people such as Ben and Francis in to help make that goal a reality.

For sources of more information about disability and development please visit our links page.