Disabled Welfare Society (DWS) is a non-political and non- government voluntary organization established in 2004 by a group of committed individuals under the leadership of Morjina Ahmed, a visually impaired woman and she is the founder General Secretary of the organization. Since then DWS is working to promote equal rights and participation of the disadvantaged and poor people with Disabilities i
n national development activities through capacity building training, advocacy and awareness rising. DWS thinks and observes that Bangladesh is the most densely populated and one of the poor countries of the world with a geographical boundary of about 147,570 sq. The population of Bangladesh is about 160 Million which is very high according to its territory. Bangladesh often presents tragic scenario characterized by poverty and death because Bangladesh is victimized almost every year by natural disaster. Most of the people live in rural area and about 65% people of the total population live under poverty level. According to the estimate of WHO, 10% population is regarded as disabled persons in our country, but they are often deprived of rights and opportunities in the society and almost all of them face discrimination and human rights violation. They cannot meet-up their basic needs including education training & employment, health & sanitation, accessibility and recreation etc. Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) widely held with the poor population are the worst victim of this leaning and inequality in development. They are the poorest and most disadvantaged population remain outside the orbit of resource, service and development process. Their hardship and vulnerability have been increasing day-by-day due to persistent acute poverty, gender disparity, discriminatory attitudes, practices, and systematic denial and violation of their rights and justice. In fact disabled people are the vulnerable population segments in the community. They have right to enjoy all types of educational facilities of the country but the opportunities are very rare for them. Due to lack of adequate educational support visually impaired persons are facing a lot of extreme problems in their study lives. They come of the very poor family on the other hand their educational expenses are very high. Braille equipments and books for the visually impaired students are not available in our country. As a result a few numbers of visually impaired people are studying in the different educational institutions encountering so many difficulties. Although the government of Bangladesh has signed for ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the person with Disabilities (CRPD). However, with the above realization of the above situation and to serve the targeted people, DWS was established and it has been running its various types of programs taking cooperation and support from different local donors and philanthropist.
