Disability Rights Fund

🚀 Join our team as our Executive Director! 📣 Disability Rights Fund and the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund are seeking a strategic, collaborative and creative Executive Director to lead the next chapter of our growth and maturation with the impending launch of our new strategic plan. The Executive Director will continue to advance and strengthen the organizations’ financial sustainability and growth as well as lead the execution of the new strategy that centers disability rights movements, expanding the impact and influence of DRF/DRAF at global, regional, and national levels. They will also oversee organizational structures and systems, cultivating an environment in which the organizations and their personnel, including staff and governance members with disabilities, can grow and thrive – an environment that models the inclusion and leadership of persons with disabilities. The ED will lead a participatory and collaborative approach to governance, management, and grantmaking, centering accessibility within this approach. 📌 Apply here: https://bit.ly/4eSwtmy ⏰ Priority application deadline: September 1, 2024 Image ID: A white and purple graphic with images of a megaphone and disability rights activists marching with text: We are hiring! Executive Director.

💥 Disability rights movements: Make your voices count! 💡 New calls for inputs: - Children's rights to access justice and effective remedies; due by August 23 - Universal birth registration; due by August 5 - Gendered dimensions of the care and support systems; due by July 31 More ⏩  http://bit.ly/3YGTqBa Image ID: A yellow graphic with an illustration of a woman using a wheelchair; she's holding a megaphone. Text: Make Your Voices Count!

🚨 We are hiring for several consultancies. Apply and pass the word around! 📌 Temporary support for Rwanda program 📌 Project manager for Global Disability Summit project 📌 Temporary assignment of program officer Learn more here 🔽 https://lnkd.in/gdw5dbYZ

🎉 We are glad to welcome Lorraine Wapling, DRF's Interim Executive Director, to the team! Read her message below. ✨ "I am honored to send this message to you as the Interim Executive Director of the Disability Rights Fund (DRF). I step into this role with immense respect for the transformative leadership of our former Executive Director, Catalina Devandas, whose vision and dedication has been instrumental in propelling DRF forward. Catalina’s leadership catalyzed the creation of our bold and visionary 5-year strategic plan and set in place the development of robust internal systems. This plan reflects our unwavering commitment to participation and partnering with diverse movements for disability rights and other strategic allies to make inclusion a reality. I am eager to help us put this plan into action!  We now have a strong foundation for a dynamic future. The DRF team is energized and ready to embrace this exciting journey." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gASyC2QQ Image ID: A purple and orange graphic with text: Welcome to the team! The graphic has a photo of a smiling woman.

🎉 Today we are celebrating 10 years of International Albinism Awareness Day! 💫 And we are cheering on youth activists with albinism, like Hilda Macheso in Malawi, who are advocating for the rights of women and girls with albinism. 🎙 "Shifting power to women and girls with albinism requires building a powerful structure from the ground-up. We need an inclusive space to manifest ourselves so that we can thrive." hashtag#NothingWithoutUs! hashtag#IAAD2024 Image ID: A purple poster with text: Shifting power to women and girls with albinism requires building a powerful structure from the ground-up. We need an inclusive space to manifest ourselves so that we can thrive. The graphic has a photo of a smiling woman with red hair wearing a printed green dress.

📣 Join this webinar with members of the Palestinian Disability Coalition.   🇵🇸 Bearing Witness: Palestinians with disabilities share their lived experiences in Gaza & other Occupied Palestinian Territories   🕰 Monday, June 10 at 8 am EDT/ 2 pm CEST/ 3 pm Palestine Register: https://lnkd.in/eY_8tEQj Image ID: Flyer with a red arrow and green, white, and black colors with text: Bearing Witness: Palestinians with Disabilities Share Their Lived Experiences in Gaza & Other Occupied Palestinian Territories.

DRF is looking forward to our participation at Wilton Park's retreat this month on global disability rights. We will dialogue on progress made, explore persistent challenges and identify opportunities for action to advance the rights of the disability community at the local, national and international levels.

The team of the Disability Rights Fund (DRF) mourns the passing of Sir Robert Martin, one of the trailblazers of the self-advocacy movement. He was the first person with an intellectual disability to serve on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since 2017.  Sir Robert was tireless in his pursuit of independent living and ending institutionalization, energizing the global self-advocacy movement. “Children are innocent, and it is too risky to leave it to the State to look after children. They need to be part of a family, they need love, opportunities, and individual care…My hope is that all the children of tomorrow grow up in caring, well supported families and communities and societies shift to be inclusive of all people,” he shared in a powerful witness testimony to end segregation and institutionalization.  Co-Chair of DRF board, Maria Ní Fhlatharta, fondly remembers Sir Robert as a devoted activist. “He was a giant of our movement and a wonderful friend to so many. His loss will be felt across the globe, but particularly in his beloved Aotearoa New Zealand. He shared his own experience of institutionalization as a young person and fought to ensure others had a right to independent living and experience a full childhood. Sir Robert was one of the great disability rights elders, and a true leader,” she said.  Rest in peace, Sir Martin! Your powerful advocacy and enduring legacy will live on in self-advocacy movements around the world that are creating systems of care and belonging. 

🔦 Webinar alert: Transforming Our Future: Building Strategies for Inclusion' with Catalina Devandas, Gopal Mitra, UNICEF, Scader Louis, Spinal Injuries Association of Malawi, Daniel Mont, Center for Inclusive Policies, and Jose Víera of International Disability Alliance . Moderated by Catherine Hyde Townsend of Ford Foundation. 🕰 May 8, 10:30 am – 12 pm EDT 🎟 Register: https://shorturl.at/eoqBF Image ID: Text reads “Webinar, Transforming Our Future: Building Strategies for Inclusion. May 8, 10:30AM – 12PM EDT. Speakers: Catalina Devandas, with Disability Rights Fund; Scader Louis with Spinal Injuries Association of Malawi (SIAM); Gopal Mitra with UNICEF; Daniel Mont with Center for Inclusive Policy, José Viera with International Disability Alliance. Moderator: Catherine Hyde Townsend, Ford Foundation.” There are headshots of each speaker, a “Register Online” image  and logos of the organizations Disability Rights Fund, Disability Rights Adovacy Fund; Spinal Injuries Association of Malawi (SIAM); UNICEF; Center for Inclusive Policy; and International Disability Alliance.

Message from DRF's Co-Chairs, Maria Ní Fhlatharta and Alberto Vásquez: We write to you with a mix of emotions as we announce the departure of Disability Rights Fund’s (DRF) visionary Executive Director, Catalina Devandas. After a dedicated and transformative leadership, Catalina is stepping down from her role to pursue an exciting new opportunity. DRF’s Board has unanimously appointed Lorraine Wapling, DRF’s outgoing Board Co-Chair, as the Interim Executive Director, and we have a strong transition team in place to oversee the process of hiring a new leader. Lorraine has been involved with DRF since its inception in 2008 and knows many of the staff members well. In her role as the Co-Chair, she has supported Catalina and the senior leadership team over the past few years and is looking forward to continuing this stewardship as the interim executive director. Under Catalina’s leadership, DRF achieved significant milestones: She led our team to develop a bold new 5-year strategic plan, significantly increased the organization’s revenues, and has strengthened our internal systems and structures that have laid a solid foundation for sustainable growth. Moreover, Catalina has built a strong senior leadership team who will work with the expertise of our global staff to implement our strategic vision. Thank you, Catalina, for your valuable contributions to DRF. We will certainly miss Catalina, and we are also excited about DRF’s future. Our talented team is committed to cross-collaboration, participation, and an intersectional approach to open spaces for advocacy and collective learning. We are confident that we are in a better place than ever before. We will continue to support organizations of persons with disabilities in the Global South to unleash their power and build inclusive communities. Please join us in wishing Catalina much success in her new journey and warmly welcoming Lorraine to our team. We thank you all for your continued support and trust in DRF. Together, we are building a future where disability rights movements are creating their own transformative agendas for justice and wellbeing.  https://lnkd.in/gBXHPVVn