Navigation

Subscribe to our mailing list

Livelihoods

Over 80% of people with disabilities in developing countries are unemployed. Many of these people live below the poverty line having been denied access to education, training and work opportunities.

People with disabilities are doubly disadvantaged by poverty and their disability from entering even into the informal sector as they lack access to credit to enable them to start up their own small businesses. For women with disabilities, access to credit and job opportunities can be even more challenging.
 
Poverty and disability are interlinked – people with disabilities are among the poorest in society and poverty in-turn adds to the risk of disability
 
Leonard Cheshire’s Livelihood interventions seek to break this vicious cycle of ‘poverty and disability’. Activities include career guidance, vocational training, job placement, enterprise support, microfinance services, employer sensitisation, apprenticeship etc.
 
Livelihood Resource Centre (LRC) has been established at Cheshire Home, Bangalore in 2008. Supported by Accenture, an international corporation, the centre's  focus is to  create  opportunities for employment in fast-growing sectors and industries through targeted, result based training programmes.
In the same year,  LRCs started in  four other locations in South Asia 
Nagapattinam, Dhaka, Islamabad and Colombo.
 
Click here‘Removing Barriers to Employment – Successful Case Stories’ by Rajendra. K. R for a paper on
 
Download paper on “Disabled People and Economic Empowerment” by Peter Coleridge.
 

Read LCD South Asia Region paper on “Microfinance Strategy”  

Samantha Kumara

I am Samantha Kumara. I could not speak properly and had difficulty in walking. LCDRC staff visited my house and have changed my life. I was given physio and speech therapy. They constructed a walking area with rods (parallel bars) for me to practice and also, helped me get a loan. As a result of this, today, I own a mobile cart, which I take around our neighbourhood and sell spices. I make about LKR 9000 (£39) in a month and have managed to save LKR 4000 (£17) till now. I cannot express the immense happiness I feel. My whole life has changed for the better. My mother’s smile says it all.

 
- P.G Samantha Kumara, 25 years, Galle, Sri Lanka