Creating Work Opportunities for People with Disability.
Stories | June 9, 2020
Creating Work Opportunities for People with Disability.
Mangal got involved with CBM partner organisation, MSS’s work in 2014, when the organisation was linking people with disability with training in mushroom production. He does this work with others, and together the group has now developed a good business – mushrooms sell for 200 rupees ($4)/kg, and they can’t keep up with demand. “I have a few special customers and I have to hide mushrooms for them, so that I don’t sell out”.
The group save around 10,000Rp ($200) a year, which they hope to use as collateral if they want to take a loan to expand their business. The group don’t have a bank account as yet, which is a challenge, as they are missing out on interest, and loans. There are many savings schemes that support women’s groups, so this group of men has some challenges here that they need to figure out.
MSS understand that people with disability are often the poorest in their communities, and struggle to earn an income. Helping them to link to training opportunities is a key way to help people get more confident and earn a viable income. So far, over 700 people have been trained in mushroom production across 167 villages. MSS has also linked over 260 people to training opportunities in small livestock production, tailoring and mobile phone repairing. Having people with disability as active contributors to the family income is often the first step to changing attitudes about disability.
Read more about the work of CBM here.
https://www.cbm.org.au/stories/creating-work-opportunities-for-people-with-disability
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