About Sense International

Sense International is the only UK charity working with deafblind people in developing countries.

A deafblind person is both deaf and blind. Because 95% of what we learn about the world comes through our eyes and ears, deafblindness causes unique problems in communication, mobility and accessing information.

The main cause of deafblindness are premature birth, birth trauma, and a host of genetic conditions including Usher syndrome, where a child is born deaf and lose their sight in their teenage years. In developing countries there is little awareness of this disability.

Many thousands of children remain in total isolation at home or in institutions. Quite often no one really knows how many deafblind people there are, where they are or what happens to them.

Sense International's mission is to ensure that deafblind people receive the education and services they need to develop their talents and play a valued role in society.

Working in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa, Sense International supports and empowers deafblind people through collaboration with partners from deafblind organisations in many countries.

This is achieved by pooling resources, lobbying governments, sharing knowledge, and putting the needs of deafblind people firmly on the map. By providing training, advice and resources to develop local education and rehabilitation initiatives Sense International is able to make a real difference to the lives of deafblind children and adults.

Sense International was voted UK International Development Charity of the Year in 2000.

Our history

Sense International, which was created in 1994 to enable Sense UK to respond appropriately to the many international requests for support, has been registered as an independent charity since April 1999.

In the past seven years, Sense International has been involved in many exciting activities in many different parts of the world. Support has been provided by the British Government, the European Union, a number of other influential funding bodies such as the National Lottery Charities Board and, importantly, by governments in the countries where we work, particularly India and Romania. We now have seventeen staff in four different countries and have been involved with projects in more than twenty countries.

There have been many developments in recent years that demonstrate how much work there is to do. There are still thousands of deafblind children living in institutions, hundreds of deafblind adults who never leave their homes and many thousands of children and adults who receive no support at all.

The coming years will be enormously challenging but with your help we can help more and more deafblind people to lead fulfilling lives.