1) What is the work your organization is doing ?
The Disability Rights Fund provides financial, movement-building and capacity support to disabled persons organizations (DPOs) in developing countries to take the lead in advocating for the human rights of persons with disabilities at local and national levels. DRF’s grantmaking emphasizes support to organizations that represent the most marginalized populations within the disability community, such as people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities, women with disabilities, and indigenous persons with disabilities. Since its inception in 2008, DRF has provided more than $17 million in grants to over 250 disabled persons organizations in 32 countries across the globe, and 12% of our total grant making has gone to indigenous-led disabled persons organizations.
2) How does your foundation work to support Indigenous communities?
In 2011, with an invitation to participate in an IFIP conference, DRF started to review our grantmaking data to see how many grantees of ours were from indigenous communities. Since 2008, 12% of our pooled fund grants have gone to indigenous-led groups and projects targeting indigenous persons with disabilities. Countries/regions where we’ve supported organizations of indigenous persons with disabilities and/or projects addressing this population include:
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Bangladesh
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Mexico
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Peru
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Pacific Island Countries