The inclusion of disabled people in mainstream micro finance programmes

Abstract

The role of mainstream micro finance providers is to give access by poor people to financial services. Many of these providers have specific targets for particularly marginalised groups of people. Relatively few have included poor disabled people as one of their target groups. Our experience demonstrates that disabled people, like any other poor people can benefit from micro financial services. Too often attitudinal and environmental barriers exclude them. Awareness raising and sensitization at all levels of micro finance organisations has been helpful in changing prevailing attitudes and often ignorance with regard to disability and so has helped to break down these barriers