International Day of Persons with Disabilities is also #GivingTuesday

Nearly 15% of the world’s population lives with a disability.  December 3 marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a day of global mobilisation and advocacy for a world that is more inclusive of persons with disabilities. It also marks #GivingTuesday a day of giving to kick-off the holiday season, recognized by thousands of organizations around the world.  

Those living with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the world’s poor and are more prone to experience social, economic, and physical barriers that affect quality of opportunity and life. 

Many children living with disabilities, such as the 19 million visually impaired worldwide, face these debilitating barriers on a daily basis in their pursuit of education, the great equalizer.

To shed light on this issue as a means of promoting policy discussion, Plan- International  recently released Include us! a study that has compiled data from 1.4 million children living throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The study found that children living with disabilities may be 10 times more likely to not attend school in comparison to their peers. In Kenya, the country with the most children with disabilities, boys and girls with disabilities were respectively 52 and 60 times less likely to attend a formal education program.

Furthering the message that children with disabilities deserve the right to an equal education, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has released a new report entitled, “Equal Right, Equal Opportunity: Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities.”

The report discusses different strategies that governments may utilize to fulfill the globally agreed upon Education for All and Millennium Development Goals ensuring that every child is in school and learning by the end of 2015.

A World at School supports organizations like Leonard Chesire Disability and individuals like Ashwini Angadi who seek to deliver on our promise of  equal access to education for children with disabilities everywhere.  

Check out and donate to Ashwini’s new project on Catapult here – every dollar counts towards education and empowering girls with disabilities!