Empowerment Through Integration

Many communities around the world lack access to basic and appropriate services for youth with vision impairments (YVIs), leading to the exclusion and underrepresentation of people with disabilities (PWDs) in society, especially in underserved communities located in developing countries. ETI is proposing an eLearning program that will provide a hybrid of virtual and in-person training to family members of youth with vision impairments (YVIs), as well as professionals who interface with YVIs (teachers, humanitarian workers, etc) in communities that don’t otherwise have access to similar training. In the next decade, through ETI’s work, YVIs in underserved communities will have a noticeable increase in quality of life (based on key indicators). By elevating the quality of life of individuals with disability and other marginalized individuals, previously excluded and underrepresented voices will feel valued and empowered and will be fully integrated and able to contribute to society. If selected as a winner, we will have crucial funds to support our eLearning program in Lebanon, Ghana, and beyond. In these communities, our program will create an inclusive future through the power of capacity building and mindset transformation. 

ETI’s vision is for all PWDs to be valued, empowered, and integrated: through ETI’s programs designed and implemented with a values-based lens and incorporating our 3 pillars of inclusion (mindset transformation, individual empowerment, and community engagement), we promote sustainable change via capacity training of families and local professionals in underserved communities around the globe. Our programs will support the achievement of our vision by:

• • • Increasing knowledge, positive attitudes, and beliefs
    • Recognizing gaps and transforming barriers in systems, families, and communities
    • Encouraging professionals to adapt their services and strategies to accommodate the needs of PWDs and advocate for the dissemination of capacity training of other professionals and organizations in the community.
    • Families encourage youth with disabilities (YWDs) to actively contribute and participate in the home and promote the inclusion of YWDs in the community.

Long-term impact and goals are to:

• • • Reduce disparities in quality of life between PWDs and individuals without disabilities.
    • Increase number of PWDs integrated in all levels and sectors of society.
    • By 2030, 10,000 families and local professionals will receive training to promote and sustain the empowerment, quality of life, and authentic inclusion of PWDs in underserved communities.

There are over 1 billion PWDS globally – more than 15% of the population. Globally, PWDs are most likely to experience poverty, less education, and lower employment. Many communities around the world lack access to basic and appropriate services for YVIs, leading to the exclusion and underrepresentation of PWDs in society, especially in underserved communities located in developing countries, which contain 90% of visually impaired people around the globe, and who are struggling to cope with civil, political, and economic inequalities. Globally, YVIs are not integrated in their communities and experience chronic disempowerment due to stigma. Moreover, only 2% of the visually impaired are formally educated. ETI has been implementing our programs in Lebanon for the past 10 years, and our mission to disrupt the narrative surrounding disability globally has led us to develop a one-of-a-kind eLearning Life Skills program to promote the empowerment and integration of blind youth in underserved communities. Our virtual training is implemented via our eLearning platform, where we offer three courses: Family Workshops, Orientation and Mobility (O&M), and Specialized Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Through our eLearning platform, beneficiaries have access to video lessons, electronic manuals, and live sessions with our specialists.

To support the empowerment and inclusion of YVIs globally, ETI offers inclusive capacity training via life skills programs based on the expertise accumulated in 10 years of implementation of direct services for blind youth, families, and members of the community. ETI creates programs that are specifically designed to identify and transform stigmas while simultaneously enabling individuals with disabilities to participate fully in society. ETI identifies and capacitates local professionals in these communities as ETI Master Trainers. Through this approach, these individuals develop professional advantages in their fields and also support the training of local families and other professionals in their own communities. Through our project, we capacitate key community members to become catalysts of change within their own communities, which promotes sustainable and long-lasting transformative impact within these communities. Our work is unique because, unlike most organizations that focus on disabilities, our humanitarian work is designed and implemented based on values-based lenses, which means that we operate with the understanding that inclusion of PWDs is a value for society at large. Through our value-based approach, we create a sustainable basis for inclusion that is tied to the understanding that inclusion for all is a value for all.

The planned impact of ETI’s eLearning program is directly informed by best Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) practices utilized in the field of humanitarian work; our 10-year experience with our previous direct-programming; collaboration with experts in specialized fields; insights from implementing partners; scholarly research; the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Short-term, success will be verified as follows:

- Achieve proposed target number of beneficiaries

- 70% of families inform having higher levels of confidence and motivation to execute specialized life skills training with their blind youth

- 60% of professionals inform adjusting their practices to better accommodate the needs of beneficiaries with visual impairments and their families

Long-term success will be verified as follows:

 - 70% of YVIs will be enrolled in any type of schooling (formal and informal) between 7 and 18 years old

- 35% of YVIs, above 18 years old, will be actively enrolled in jobs in the community

In the next decade, through ETI’s work, YVIs in underserved communities will have a noticeable increase in quality of life, will feel valued and empowered, and will be fully integrated and contribute to society.