Liberia: AIFO Liberia Disability And Start-Up Project Launches Economy Survey Report

Monrovia: On September 23, 2019, a local Italian NGO, the Italian Association Friends of Raoul Follereau (AIFO) Disability and Start-Up Project (DASU) over the weekend launched an economic survey report in the country.

The DASU project is a program component of AIFO that is aimed at improving the livelihood of persons living with disabilities in the country. The DASU Project is a three-year scheme funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation that started May 2, 2018 and expected to end May 1, 2021, with a total cost of US$1.4 million.

Meanwhile, the survey report is the outcome of a research investigation conducted by the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Florence in partnership with a Liberian researcher, Jacob Jallah.

The report investigates the economic challenges confronting persons living with disabilities in Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Bong and Montserrado Counties. The survey revealed that there is no focus or a strict connection between persons living with disabilities and the social economy.

Give the overview of the launch, the Media Director of AIFO-Liberia; Luther S. Mendi said the overall objective of AIFO-Liberia DASU Project is to reinforce the role of disable people organizations in the social economic development processes.

“We focus on economic empowerment; we focus on how to build the capacity of persons living with disability to promote their own rights”

Mendi continues: “We want to ensure active participation of the national umbrella of persons living with disability, NUOD and nine DPOs institutions that we are working with in policy making and human right approaches.