About Handicap International UK
Since Handicap International’s creation in 1982, our work has benefited several million people across 60 countries affected by poverty and conflict. Our organisation is co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the Mine Ban Treaty.
Our vision is of a world where all disabled people can fully access and exercise their human rights.
Our areas of work
Inclusion
In developing countries, 98 % of disabled children do not attend school. (UNICEF)
Handicap International works with disabled people to promote inclusion in society. Activities include inclusive education, access to employment, lobbying governments to ensure equal opportunities for disabled people and sport & cultural activities. For instance, inclusive education is about ensuring that all children and young people are afforded their equal rights and opportunities with regards to education. Receiving an education enables disabled children to find a job later in life, be independent, be socially included and defend their rights.
Rights
There are an estimated 650 million disabled people in the world – 80 % of whom live in developing countries.
Disabled people are generally the poorest of the poor in society. Entrenched negative attitudes, discrimination and social exclusion means that disabled people are being denied their fundamental human rights. Handicap International works alongside disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations to address these issues. In particular, Handicap International has supported the movement to formulate, implement and monitor the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This major piece of international human rights law comes into force in 2008.
Prevention of disability
50% of disabilities are preventable and directly linked to poverty. (DfID)
Our preventive activities include:
- clearing landmines, cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance
- teaching communities about the dangers of such weapons through mine risk education
- raising awareness of the disabling effects of illnesses by disseminating messages adapted to populations which have limited access to information in order to prevent them from contracting certain diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
Rehabilitation & Healthcare
In developing countries, only 2% of disabled people have access to basic healthcare services. (World Health Organisation)
We provide quality rehabilitation services by training local rehabilitation professionals, setting up orthopaedic and rehabilitation centres and supporting education, health and social care systems. We also provide quality healthcare services by training local healthcare professionals and setting up community pharmacies.
Emergencies
Following a disaster, an estimated 7% of people in camps have a disability. (World Bank)
For every child killed in a conflict, three are permanently disabled. (UNICEF)
Worldwide, over 50% of our programmes started out as emergency projects. We assist disabled people, refugees and displaced people by providing adequate treatment, rehabilitation services, physiotherapy and other appropriate services. We raise the awareness of international, national and local organisations regarding the importance of taking disabled people’s needs into account during emergencies.
Our history
Handicap International was founded in 1982 by three doctors working on the Thailand-Cambodia border with Cambodian refugees. They provided care for this population along with other organisations and were particularly worried about the situation of people with disabilities.
They noticed that many Khmer people had been injured by landmines and that they had to use crutches to move. As the rest of the population started to organise their economic activities, people with disabilities were pushed to the fringes of this newly organised society.
These three doctors decided to focus their work on these excluded people and Handicap International was born.
The first project was to produce orthopaedic devices that would be appropriate and affordable to this population. They created artificial limbs made of wood and leather that were cheap and could be easily repaired by their users. They then started to organise training sessions for future orthopaedic technicians in refugee camps.
Their work had such an impact that they quickly received demands from many different countries. In this way Handicap International began its work all around the world...