Building livelihoods

Usha stands inside her petty shop in Kothara village, India.

Our impact last year

20k people with disabilities supported to earn a living

People with disabilities in poor communities often find it difficult to earn a living because they can’t access education or training, face prejudice and discrimination or cannot access resources or loans to get started.

CBM programmes improve access to employment, training and working rights for disabled people, providing training and support to help them get a job or start their own business.

Disability, livelihoods and unemployment

In every country in the world, people with disabilities have higher rates of unemployment than anyone else.
In some countries, the unemployment rate among people with disabilities is as high as 80%, putting them among the poorest 15 – 20% of the world’s population.
Excluding disabled people from the labour market is damaging for all of society, for example failing to include people with disabilities in Bangladesh was calculated to lead to an economic loss of US$234 million per year.

How we help

CBM helps people with disabilities to earn a living by:

Offering training in vocational and life skills;
Helping people with disabilities to build their confidence and see themselves as active members of their communities, through one-to-one support from trained outreach workers;
Providing start-up resources to help people set up businesses, such as small loans or equipment like a sewing machine or computer.