ADD works in collaboration with disabled people’s organisations to encourage the country governments where we work to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and move as quickly as possible towards implementation.

ADD works in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia with disabled people's organisations ranging from small village groups to large national federations. Some disabled people’s organisations are made up of people with different disabilities, while others have come together through a shared experience, for example deaf people or albinos.

Disabled people, particularly disabled women and children, are among the poorest most disadvantaged people in the world and are often overlooked by other organisations working in development. ADD works across all disability groups and upholds the belief that all disabled people have a right to be included in society. ADD is committed to the social model of disability: that a person is disabled by society not by their impairment.

ADD’s eight Country Directors and their teams work directly with disabled peoples organisations and their democratically elected leaders.

Leaders of disabled people’s organisations hold meetings with their members throughout the year to discuss their plans and aims. The leaders attend annual meetings with ADD to plan and agree the next 12 months’ work and enter into formal partnerships. This ensures that the needs of disabled people themselves determine ADD’s work.

ADD’s aims

To enable rights-based organisations of disabled people to become effective, self-sustaining, democratic and representative membership organisations, able to carry out their work and to promote the rights of all disabled adults and children to full inclusion in society.

To work with disability rights organisations to influence policy makers and development organisations to include the rights and needs of disabled people in all their work and to encourage them to allocate resources for this.

Looking for people to raise funds for ADD in the Bristol 10k and Great Manchester Run...