Inclusive Development for Disadvantaged Groups

Thank you so much for your donation to IDRAP work on Inclusive Rural Development for Vulnerable Groups in South East Province in eastern part of Indonesia. Your generosity means everything to us and to the community we serve. We know you have a lot of choices when it comes to donating, and we are so grateful that you chose to donate to our cause. We promise to be responsible stewards of both your donation and your trust.

The activities carried out by IDRAP during this period were to conduct training to strengthen the political participation of people with disabilities in making development policies so that their aspirations and needs can be accommodated in development policies through the preparation of village regulations on development. This activity was launched in 5 days with 60 participants involved who came from families of people with disabilities. Due to various difficulties and physical obstacles, only 20 people with disabilities participated directly, while the other 40 were the closest family members of people with disabilities, such as parents or siblings who live in the same house as people with disabilities. The main focus of this activity was to develop the capacity of people with disabilities or their closest family members in holding group deliberation of people with disabilities to formulate joint aspirations so that they have the strength and bargaining power to fight for the aspirations and needs so that there is a budget allocation from the government in development policies. On the last day of the training, participants were guided to prepare an action plan as a follow-up to the training when they returned to the village.

Group meetings for people with disabilities have been held in several villages in Southeast Sulawesi as a follow-up to training to strengthen political participation in the formulation of village development policies. A total of 10 villages held special meetings for groups of people with disabilities and were able to formulate joint aspirations and fight for them in village-level meetings as the highest decision-making forum. Several aspirations and needs of people with disabilities were successfully fought for to be funded through the annual village budget, including the procurement of hearing aids for the deaf, walking aids for the blind. These aspirations have been approved for budgeting so that their procurement will be realized in 2025. This is an extraordinary achievement for people with disabilities who have so far been neglected by village development policies and have never enjoyed the results of development. With this policy (inclusive development policies), people with disabilities have begun to be treated equally with other members of society.

“I am very grateful to IDRAP for helping me realize my dream of being able to interact with other members of society. Although I have not received a hearing aid, my name has been included in the list of recipients of hearing aid assistance next year. I can't wait to get it so I can socialize normally.” Julia, a person with a disability (deaf).

Thank you all for your support. We are all fighting for the rights of vulnerable groups to be treated equally in social life, to have the same rights to participate in planning, implementing, supervising and enjoying the results of development, to get out of the discriminatory situation they have been experiencing.