On the 14th of July EUD followed a webinar organised by the partners of the VIVID-T project on disability inclusion in humanitarian action and volunteering. The webinar is the first of a set of webinars about the EU funded project VIVID. The webinar looked at inclusion of persons with disabilities in international volunteering, and analysed rising challenges during COVID-19.
Charlotte Thumser from CBM Ireland gave an overview of the benefits of inclusive volunteering, including gaining resilience and strengthening self-confidence. She also recognised important barriers for persons with specific disabilities to be deployed in countries with multiple barriers. Regina Fuchs from the German organisation Bezev, gave an overview of their experience in promoting volunteering among persons with disabilities, with the handbook ‘Just do it now’.
Regina Fuchs also highlighted some of the challenges of the VIVID-T project during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the difficulty for some volunteers with disabilities to carry out their activities due to belonging to a higher risk group and undergoing lockdown. She also mentioned the difficulty to access reliable information about the state of health care in host countries.
Shane Halpin, from Viatores Christi, explained that all funded projects in his organisation use a crosscutting lends, including topics such as social justice and human rights, gender, HIV and AIDS, and environment. He expressed that during lockdown, most volunteers involved in the project left had to leave the host countries.
The main aim of the VIVID Project is to create a community of practice made up of EU organisations working towards disability inclusion in humanitarian action and volunteering. EUD will increasingly advocate for the inclusion of deaf persons in EU-funded humanitarian action and volunteer programs.
EUD would like to thank the VIVID-T partners for organising the webinar.
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