Project location(s): Kilifi County

Project Overview

The Inclusive Communities project is an initiative that aims at increasing access to rights and participation of people with disabilities on personal, community and societal levels in Kilifi County. The project has a particular focus on women, girls and people with mental health and psychosocial disabilities – those who can be the most vulnerable.

What does the project aim to do?

• Strengthen organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs) to raise awareness, reduce disability stigma and advocate for systemic change.
• Improve access to education, peer support, health services and livelihood opportunities through community-based inclusive development (CBID), improving resilience to emergencies.
• Create sustainable change in how disability and mental health is perceived by people with disabilities, their communities and government institutions.

This project’s goals will be achieved through interventions in 3 main areas:

1. People with disabilities, their families and their representative organizations are strengthened and effectively advocating for themselves

Based on evidence that personal encounters with people living with disability positively influence people’s attitudes, the project seeks to empower people with lived experience of mental health conditions to engage with the public and dispel myths and misconceptions around disability.

2. People with disabilities are visible, equal participants in community life, with access to available, affordable, inclusive services

By engaging employers, government social services (safety nets), providing seed funding and VSLAs and self-help group formation and strengthening, Inclusive Communities will improve the economic capacities of people with disabilities. This will be done through providing access to capital, opportunities for employment, and jointly engaging with the public and private sectors in policy reform and networking and coordination mechanisms established through the project.

3. Government, civil society and the development sector in Kilifi County are increasingly disability inclusive

The project aims to promote greater engagement between people with disabilities and national and county governments, civil society organizations, and businesses. This will allow the voices of people with disabilities to contribute to public policy and systems to better their social, physical and economic lives. This will be achieved through providing increased dialogue spaces to enable engagement between people with disabilities and government, civil society organizations, businesses, and local administration.

Implementing partner(s)

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