HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL is an independent and impartial international aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. Working alongside people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony are focused on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions and promoting respect for their dignity and their fundamental rights.

Handicap International is a not-for-profit organization with no religious or political affiliation. It operates as a federation made up of a network of associations that provide it with human and financial resources, manage its projects and implement its actions and social mission".

19TH JULY 1982 - Handicap International was founded

The Cambodian-Thai border at the start of the 1980s: the needs of thousands of disabled people and people injured by landmines are not met by international aid community. The founders of Handicap International decided to open the first orthopedic and rehabilitation centers in the Cambodian refugee and displaced persons camps, seeking solutions that were adapted to the context and local resources.

Today, the organization implements 301 emergency relief, rehabilitation and/or development projects in 60 countries

BENEFICIARY POPULATIONS Populations at risk of diseases, violence or accidents liable to cause disability. People with disabilities and people living with chronic disabling diseases. Vulnerable groups. Refugee populations, populations living in disaster areas or populations displaced by crises, conflicts and catastrophes. Populations threatened by weapons, munitions and explosive devices during or in the wake of military conflicts.		OUR GOALS To prevent incapacities, impairment and disability due to diseases, accidents and violence. To ensure that services offered in our areas of expertise are available, adapted and accessible. To strengthen capacities and promote social participation and the application and exercising of our beneficiaries' rights.
INTERVENTION CONTEXTS Emergency Post-emergency Reconstruction or rehabilitation Development		WHEN AND WHERE CONFLICTS AND DISASTERS OCCUR, OR IN THEIR IMMEDIATE WAKE: To prevent and limit the consequences of crises and disasters on individuals and communities. To help organize relief, provide adapted assistance and cover basic needs, with a special focus on persons who are particularly vulnerable and those with injuries or disabilities.
EXPERTISE Health Prevention Rehabilitation Economic and social inclusion Education Inclusive development Accessibility	Disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction Demining and mine/ERW risk Education Coordination and management of camps Basic needs Reconstruction Advocacy

INTERVENTION PRINCIPLES

Handicap International exercises its professional responsibilities in accordance with the principles of:

• "do no harm", by measuring the consequences of our actions and causing no injury;
• "overlook nothing", by seeking to mobilize all suitable and available means.
• Achievement of the greatest possible positive and measurable impact on the lives of our final beneficiaries.
• Consideration for the Relief-Rehabilitation-Development contiguum
• Approaches, activities and their duration adapted to each situation.
• Coordination and partnership with stakeholders at the local, national and international levels.
• Particular attention to contributions by local actors
• Consideration for sustainability issues
• Exit strategy planning at the program or project design stage, and appropriate support during the transition period.

Disability and Development

FIGHTING EXCLUSION

The marginalization of people with disabilities, the way they are overlooked in development programs, are factors that worsens situations of poverty and are a constant denial of human rights. Millions of people, all over the world, are deprived of medical care, social assistance, economic inclusion, education and social participation.

FOR GREATER SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

Handicap International is working towards an inclusive society that recognizes and respects the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities. Handicap International's global commitment is to promoting access to quality neighborhood services, to reducing risks and causes of disability, preventing discrimination and promoting the rights and participation of persons with disabilities.

HEALTH, CARE AND REHABILITATION

Individuals receive physical and psychological care that will enable them to achieve their life projects:

 

• improvement of care, health and functional rehabilitation services for people with disabilities,
• support to health and rehabilitation institutions (general objectives plan, accreditation procedures, services management),
• training and accompaniment of medical and paramedical staff (initial, continuing and management training, assistance in creating networks of professionals),
• information, awareness-raising and education in the prevention of diseases and disability (Aids, diabetes, untreated tropical disease, physical and psychological traumas),
• prevention of environment-related risks.

INCLUSION

We are working for the full social participation of people with disabilities:

 

 

• access to education,
• access to vocational training and employment,
• access to culture, sport and leisure activities,
• access to family and community life,
• training and accompaniment of social services staff,
• an accessible environment, especially, infrastructure and transport,
• information, awareness-raising, and education to change the way the general public looks upon disability.

DISABILITY RIGHTS AND POLICIES

We are working to achieve the recognition and application of disabled people's universal and individual rights:

 

• promotion of their rights and instruments for implementing them: advocacy, disability observatories,
• support to disabled people's organizations,
• strengthening of dialogue between public authorities and civil society,
• help in defining national and local policies for access to fundamental rights.

A PARTNERSHIP APPROACH

• Partnership is fundamental to the way Handicap International implements activities. It involves defining objectives and intervention principles and results in the negotiation and drawing up of a collaboration contract between partners with the same philosophy of action.
• Partnership with local organizations is a basic principle in our field projects. Identifying needs and proposing solutions are carried out jointly with all the local stakeholders, especially the users.
• At an institutional level, partnership with governmental bodies allows us to contribute towards the implementation of sectorial policies and ensure that these actions are incorporated into national policies.

Emergency Relief Action

RESPONSE TO CRISIS, IN EMERGENCY AND POST-EMERGENCY

Whenever there is a conflict, the civilian population is on the front line, with millions of refugees or displaced persons, disabled people and vulnerable groups exposed to numerous risks, injured or maimed by hundreds. In addition to these violent conflicts, there are ecological disasters which have a particularly devastating effect on economically fragile countries. Handicap International's Relief Action Department provides a multi-disciplinary humanitarian response to refugees, displaced persons and disaster victims, and offers specialized accompaniment to trauma victims and persons with disabilities.

EMERGENCY RELIEF ACTION -9 sectors of activity

To respond to the wide range of crises situations, the Emergency Response Department offers 9 main areas of competence:

• management and distribution of humanitarian aid (transport, storage, on-forwarding of essential materials and supplies);
• assistance to refugees and displaced persons, construction of temporary shelters and organization of the voluntary repatriation of these populations;
• access to water and sanitation;
• aid and support to persons with disabilities and vulnerable groups;
• victim assistance (physical rehabilitation, orthopedic fitting, psycho-social support);
• preventive health care, general health care and community-based rehabilitation in the camps;
• rehabilitation and construction of housing and community infrastructures;
• mine risk education and mine clearance;
• disaster preparedness.

VICTIMS OF DISABLING PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMAS - What specific responses?

Being there at the beginning of a crisis means we are able to introduce measures for identifying, monitoring and providing early care to injured people presenting a high risk of disabling physical or psychological after-effects.

Special support for persons with disabilities: at the same time, we deploy measures for identifying, assisting and orienting disabled people who are particularly exposed to risks in crisis and disaster situations. From the first instants of a crisis, we provide adapted assistance that aims to achieve two things:

• to help persons with disabilities and very vulnerable people (the elderly, pregnant women, unaccompanied children, etc.) in accessing the general assistance measures designed for the majority of victims or displaced persons,
• to identify the specific needs of people with disabilities and provide the specialized medical and technical response they require.

This assistance is mainly provided by setting up disability information, orientation and support systems (Disability focal points).

FROM EMERGENCY RELIEF TO DEVELOPMENT - Our commitments

Ensuring that there is a balance between relief, rehabilitation and development actions (the RRD continuum) is an integral part of Handicap International's political foundation. To achieve this, our teams undertake:

• from the start of a crisis, to develop a strategy of support to local stakeholders in parallel to any direct action,
• to support dynamics between local stakeholders from the crisis management stage through to the rehabilitation stage,
• to gradually cease or transfer our interventions as soon as they can be taken on by local partners.