Our commitment to disability inclusion

Viatores Christi, an NGO with over 60 years of experience in international development, has been a consortium partner in the EU AID funded VIVID:T project. VIVID:T project’s main aim is to create a global community of practice working towards disability inclusion in humanitarian action and volunteering. This project had very clear goals – introducing and developing inclusive procedures and systems for all the organisations in the consortium. This project also aims to serve as a model for the EU to support disability inclusive volunteering.

For VC (Viatores Christi) its main activities included a volunteering self-assessment tool for the VIVID:T members to assess the systems, policies and procedures needed to deploy, manage and support volunteers. VC also organised two online conferences sharing learnings and perspectives from the project activities. It also conducted rapid research on inclusive online volunteering.

However, the impact of being part of VIVID:T was much more profound for VC. Shane Halpin CEO Viatores Christi told attendees at the VIVID:T online conference In December that “Over 1.3 billion people across the world live with some form of disability. A truly remarkable number – yet how many organisations are really ‘inclusive’ in terms of how they operate, the services they offer, the policies that are made? The tide is turning” he said, “and all organisations, whether in the private or public sector need to pay attention to the fact that this segment of our population can no longer be ignored.”

VC as an organisation has committed to a process of becoming inclusive in its work, communications and policies. It has benefited hugely from the training resources and toolkits developed by the VIVID:T members during the project – these are of use to any organisation, large or small, that is aiming to become more accessible and inclusive.

As disablity inclusion and accessibilty starts with awareness, Viatores Christi has produced a video to call on leaders to take action and engage in disability inclusion.

Join us as we aim to become more inclusive and accessible. 

Useful Resources