A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Bangladesh – Empowering the Blind

Bangladesh is a poor and overcrowded country. About 8-10 percent of the total population is disabled; approximately 8.5 million people are physically disabled; 1.3 million people are speech and hearing impaired; almost 2 million people are visually impaired or blind; and some 1.5 million people are intellectually impaired. 
 
Disabled people lack access to medical facilities, education and employment opportunities. Impoverished, they are dependent upon their families. Considered a burden on society by their communities, they experience harassment and humiliation.  
 
As such, the Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO) works to free disabled people from the darkness, to prove that they are not a burden to society, and to inspire them to gain education, access to medical facilities, and employment opportunities. BERDO’s main aim is to empower the disabled community of the country.

• For more news from and about BERDO, visit their partner page.

• Two Advocacy Project Fellows for Peace have worked with BERDO and blogged about their experiences: Danita Topcagic in 2008 and Caitlin Burnett in 2007.