Rebuilding Livelihoods for Adults with Deafblindness and Multiple Disabilities post Covid

95% of what we learn is through our eyes and ears. Imagine what it is like to be deafblind!

Deafblindness is a unique disability that combines varying degrees of both hearing and visual impairment. All individuals who are deafblind experience extreme challenges with communication, mobility as well as accessing information and most have additional physical and medical conditions. Persons with deafblindness face neglect and discrimination owing to their inability to communicate and relate to the world. They are thus denied even the basic human rights like education, medical care, amongst other needs that are taken for granted by most of us. There is very little awareness about deafblindness amongst the government, general public and other NGOs working in the area of disability. Due to this situation, many children and adults with deafblindness are left without support and even considered severely intellectually impaired incorrectly. With the right care and support, children and adults with deafblindness can become active members of society. 

The COVID-19 pandemic proved a disaster to the micro-enterprises of deafblind adults. The customer turnout was impacted, following social protection guidelines was difficult for them as they use touch for communication. Coming from poor families, the stopping of income became an extremely difficult situation for them and deafblind adults are facing daily struggles to ensure the survival of their families. 

An integral component of Sense India’s work is supporting persons with deafblindness to start income generation activities, becoming micro-entrepreneurs and be able to support their families financially. Sense India has supported 125+ such deafblind micro-entrepreneurs to start their ventures. Sense India also, at the same time developed a new robust strategy to ensure that any ventures run by deafblind adults can withstand COVID-19 and any other similar emergencies in the future. This includes doing extensive research on the localised market and requirements where the deafblind adult is residing and finding out the best venture to start meeting the skills and capabilities of the deafblind adult. This is complemented by providing training and capacity building to deafblind adults on business management, financial management and other salient features for successfully running a profitable venture.

Thes support raised will ensure sustainable livelihoods for deafblind adults. The businesses and income of deafblind adults affected will be regenerated which will help them to earn their livelihoods. Adult deafblind micro-entrepreneurs will be capacitated to build their skill and help them to start and run their microenterprise and be a contributing member of the society.