Disability and Development Partners

20/02/2026

The members of five new self-help groups, for disabled people and their family members, are being supported to develop their small businesses and income generation activities on the edge of Kathmandu, including handicrafts, bag printing, grocery shops, livestock-rearing and market gardening.

The participants in previous projects often found the biggest challenge to be marketing their products, so Dhrc Nepal has carried out a training session on the subject. Thanks to Maheshwar, Jagadish, Buddhi and everybody involved. We hope it was very useful, and will have tangible benefits for your bottom lines!

16/02/2026

Bishnu is the mother and carer of Kriti, who has learning disabilities. They live in Kageshwori Manohara Municipality on the edge of Kathmandu, with three other family members: Bishnu’s husband, who works as a painter-decorator, her father-in-law, and her son, a college student.

Her daughter Kriti was born in 2000. At eight, she contracted meningitis and – although it seemed to have been cured at the time - her health later began to deteriorate, to the point where she needed 24/7 care and support. Kriti was given a red identity card for severe disability, and Bishnu has been her carer ever since.

As Kriti’s representative, Bishnu joined a new self-help group (SHG) being formed in her area as part of Fwdn Nepal’s project with DDP, in October 2025. She was appointed the group’s chairperson and, alongside all the other members, she has learned a lot about disability, policy, rights and entitlements.

The FWDN/DDP project has also helped with essential supplies for her daughter, and with livelihood support, as Bishnu has started a small jelly cushion business. The plan is for such income generation activities and the SHG to carry on in a self-sustaining way after the project comes to an end in March.

13/02/2026

Disability Voice TV programme (in Nepali) featuring our Disability Inclusion, Livelihoods and Self-Advocacy projects with Fwdn Nepal and Dhrc Nepal:

02/02/2026

An update from DDP in February 2026: https://ddpuk.org/winter-newsletter-2025-26/

01/02/2026

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/01/deaf-run-cafe-london-where-hearing-people-order-via-sign

In-person interactions break down barriers in east London, as AI startups also try to bridge communication divide

30/12/2025

15/12/2025

Thank you, SHRUTI friends, for having and inspiring us! We look forward to staying in touch!

15/12/2025

Sita gave us a lovely welcome to her grocery shop and introduced us to her husband Nabaraj and their little lad. We had met at the community media training workshop, where Sita had been a very active and thoughtful contributor.

She thanked Zain for that experience, feeling very positive about what she’d learned, for example about interviewing and the use of social media. She is thinking of using TikTok to advertise her shop, and, with a bit of luck, to go viral! Together with Prem Bahadur and Sujata from her newly-established self-help group (SHG), Sita will report back to the group at their next meeting.

She is the Treasurer of the SHG. It is already making a difference, with opportunities to network, meet new people and learn from them. Nabaraj is also a member, and told us he was overwhelmed – in a good way! – by the experience so far. It’s his first time belonging to a group like this: he’s learning a lot. He tends to be quiet in the meetings, but feels he could ask questions if necessary, and discusses the issues with Sita at home.

Business is ok: "thikai chha." The shop hadn’t been doing too well until recently when, thanks to livelihood support from our project, she was able to invest in ingredients for chatpati and panipuri snacks which have proved popular among passing kids from the school just down the road.

Sita is very positive about the attitudes of her Gagalphedi neighbours, who often help with reaching things on the shop’s top shelves, looking after the child, or taking Nabaraj to collect disability benefits. The biggest problem for disabled people, she thinks, are money, accessibility and work opportunities.

She suspects disabled women have more problems than men. In her case, she is responsible for everything: their son's childcare, getting him to school (and affording the bill), running the home, cooking… and Nabaraj depends on her too. Sita hopes that her community media activities will raise awareness about the lives of disabled women.

15/12/2025

Prem Bahadur is happy to be the Chairperson of his self-help group (SHG). He comes from a very remote part of Nepal with few educational opportunities. He’s doing his best and feeling confident about the challenge. Everybody knows Prem Bahadur from his café in the centre of Gagalphedi, right opposite the Ward Office which stands next to the Pipal tree and still has broken front windows from the GenZ protests in September 2025.

One of the elected Ward members drops into the café. He thinks that the accessibility of buildings and infrastructure is a main problem for disabled people here, especially blind people, and they are trying to do their bit at the Ward Office. There is no lift, but at least there’s a space where one could go in future. The Ward has some budget for disability, and they will help people who come with requests as best they can, or ‘signpost’ them towards other sources of support.

Prem Bahadur says that the SHG meetings have been held upstairs, kindly provided by the Ward, but although most people are physically disabled, there are no wheelchair users; everyone, including three members with visual impairments, can be helped up the stairs.

Prem Bahadur enjoyed the community media training, and picked up useful tips about conducting respectful interviews which he’s ready to feed back to the SHG. He has been in business for many years, and has come to realize the importance of education for many areas of life. Prem Bahadur is very interested in the possibilities offered by mobile technology, and keen to learn, but is worried about the writing side. We suggest that visual and verbal content could be even more effective.

Thanks to Prem Bahadur for a very tasty momo and chow mein lunch. We hope that FWDN’s livelihood support programme will be useful for developing the café business and make it more profitable.