RI Global Press Release: Successful Conference Spurs Africa Project

RI Global: Office of Communications

Contact: Adrian Brune, +1 347-759-9501

RI meetings in Africa Result in Regional Projects for Disability 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 14 November — Following successful meetings of its Executive Committee and RI’s 2017 Annual General Assembly, Rehabilitation International, a global disability advocacy organization, held a Regional Conference for Africa to jumpstart RI’s projects for people with disabilities in the region.

In opening remarks, RI President Haidi Zhang announced the mobilization of resources, with the help of the China Disabled Persons Federation (RI-China) and the Government of China, for two funds designed to help local partners to embark in activities that will help empower Africans with disabilities, especially women and children. The Africa Fund will ensure the collaboration of RI Global with other partners in the region to build capacities of persons with disabilities, especially those who are most marginalized and need support. Under RI Global’s Disability Development Fund, the organization will also undertake activities for other regions that need assistance.

“The RI President has made it clear that Persons with Disabilities are central to the work of the organization under her leadership,” said RI Global Secretary-General Venus Ilagan.  “A woman with a disability from a developing country herself, Haidi Zhang knows the issues which disabled persons have to face every single day of their lives and she wants to be able to help do something to better their situation.”

The multi-year funding mobilized to support RI’s initiatives will be complemented by the acumen of RI Global’s experts in the fields of disability. RI Global, through its Commissions or thematic working groups, have decades of work dedicated to creating opportunities and build better lives for persons with disabilities in the areas of education; health and functions; technology and accessibility; leisure, recreation and physical activities; policy and services; social; and work and employment.

RI Global: Founded in 1922, Rehabilitation International (RI Global) is a worldwide network promoting the rights and inclusions of persons with disabilities (PwDs) through advocacy, habilitation and rehabilitation to achieve an inclusive world in which all people can enjoy full human rights.