Business development for people with visual impairments in Bolivia

We are delighted to announce that we are shortly commencing a
three year project with the Bolivian Institute for the Blind, Instituto Boliviano de la Ceguera (IBC). Our project is supported by the European Commission.

Goals and projected outcomes

This project will promote the socio-economic and political development of people with visual impairments in the departments of La Paz, Chuquisaca, Potosi and Cochabamba. These are amongst the poorest regions in Bolivia.

The goals of this project are to:

• create nine profitable small businesses which are managed by       people with visual impairments
  

• increase by 20% the number of people with visual impairments        working in the public sector

• increase the IT and management skills of 2,000 members the Institute for the Blind
  

• support the nine businesses to actively participate in business networks in Bolivia
  

By placing four professional Development Workers to work with the IBC at both national and regional levels, we will help raise awareness of rights, strengthen management capacities and help identify profitable business ideas.

Our long history of working in Bolivia has enabled us to build an excellent reputation with the government and local communities. We will be building on work that is currently being undertaken in the Ministry of Labour by one of our Development Workers. She is working on disability employment rights to ensure that legislative commitments are met.

We will also encourage the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities which was ratified by the Bolivian government last year.

Background to disability rights in Bolivia

In Bolivia, people with disabilities face discrimination on multiple fronts: at institutional and social levels. 74-97% of disabled children do not receive any form of education, and of those who do attend school, only one in 20 will finish secondary school. 

Teacher-training does not include a focus on including children with disabilities into the school curriculum. The knock-on effect is that people with disabilities are excluded from the workforce because of a lack of employable skills. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed throughout the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. And in Bolivia, more than 70% of people with disabilities live on less than $2 a day.  

People with disabilities in rural areas are further discriminated against by their families and communities because disability is frequently seen as a punishment from God for some previous wrong-doing by the parents. In addition to all of these difficulties, people with visual impairments are amongst the most vulnerable of this marginalized group due a lack of accessible information. Braille is not widely taught and it is thought that there is only one Braille printer in the country.

For more information on this project, please contact us by email or call us on +353 1 874 6007.

How to support our work