The DOJF has embarked on a Gender equality & Gender Based Violence Project “Strengthening the participation of the Women with Disability to create a national level forum to address the issues of gender based violence and the rights of Women with Disabilities.” with the financial support from USAid through Management Systems International (hereinafter called “MSI”) as part of their intervention under “Increased Demand and Engagement for Accountability” Project (MSI/IDEA), in the year 2021 August, which will continue for one year.

The Overall Objective of this project is to mitigate violence against women and girls with disabilities and strengthening civil society organizations to advocate for the mainstreaming of disability perspective into stronger policies, strategies, and action plans.

Through this grant initiate, DOJF conducted training and education on Gender Based Violence (GBV) Mitigation Strategies, Sexual and Reproductive Health and CRPD to Establish National Level Platform including Women with Disabilities to increase the cooperation, partnership, and synergy with National and Provincial Level Stakeholders to maintain sustainable relationship to better address the Gender Based Violence issues.The DOJF hopes to create a national level platform for women with disabilities to make a strong voice to promote and eliminate all forms of violence against girls and women with disabilities. 

The National Democratic Institute joined hands with the DOJF to initiate this project on Inclusive Election Reformation. Started in September 2021 this project will go on for one year.

Through this programmatic intervention, DOJF and its sub-cluster members plan to focus on accessibility issues facing marginalized groups including physical accessibility to polling stations and the ability to cast a vote, access to electoral information as well as the targeting of electoral information/voter education to meet the needs of marginalized communities.

The DOJF will also contextualize the program intervention against the backdrop of global political and socio-economic dynamics which have come to bear on marginalized people in the Sri Lankan context. Politically, this means that the DOJF and other disability organizations are utilizing their existing networks and will use the sub-cluster under this program to advocate for their election rights in the context of implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in Sri Lanka.

Project Objectives

1. Coordinate and implement electoral reform advocacy and lead the CSO working group focused on participation and inclusion in elections.

2. Identify the major electoral issues that affect persons with disabilities and other marginalized communities in relation to the electoral process.

3. Develop the capacities of key electoral stakeholders to create awareness on participatory and inclusive electoral reforms, including disability data and strategies.

4. Take forward electoral reform recommendations under the participation and inclusion cluster towards implementation.

5. Create a synergy with sub-cluster members and across clusters in order to jointly advocate for electoral reforms.

This project was initiated with the funding from SHIA- Sweden in order to develop and Strengthen Advocacy and Awareness during January to December 2005. 

Under this project , the DOJF organized and participated in various networking and pressure groups to lobby influential decision-making bodies. Furthermore conducted workshops and meetings on the rights and entitlements of people with disabilities

This project was initiated to Strengthening the Administration and Management Capacity of the Disability Organizations Joint Front, for the period of January 2005-January 2006 with the funding from Siloam Center for the Blind. 

Some of the objectives of this project was to improve communication and networking between member organizations and the DOJF secretariat, Improve coordination and management of DOJF activities through the employment of a full-time staff and  to make sure active participation of all member organizations in the DOJF capacity training program, especially those who are visually impaired by producing material in Braille for trainings.

Objectives

1.To integrate persons with disabilities and their caregivers in core GBV training packages

2.To engage the women and girls with disabilities on development of strategies and implementation activities of their inclusion

3.To integrate existing GBV response services with the disabled persons disaggregated by sex and age

IDEA -USAID Project 2019-2020

This fixed amount award was granted to the DOJF by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from August 15, 2019 to August 14,2020 to implement the project called ‘Disability inclusion in mainstream development through a comprehensive advocacy and lobby drive’. 

Main Objective

Initiate a comprehensive Disability Rights Monitoring Network through mobilizing PwD’s by providing Human Rights Education, including rights of PwDs and gender, and create a vigilance network at district/provincial level thereby establish a national level Disability Right Monitoring

Purpose of the project

In Sri Lanka there is no proper mechanism to monitor the rights violation of PwD’s. When compiling the Pectoral Report on Disability for the UPR process. Furthermore, when the information related to incidents/violations are not reliable, further actions or intervening for right violation issues cannot initiate at national level as well as provincial level.

To make the reporting process more inclusive, evidence based and have a wider representation and response to rights violations, DOJF initiated human rights education, more specifically on the rights of PwDs including gender and create a vigilance network at District & Provincial level with the participation and partnership of DOJF member organizations network spread across the country.

Events Under IDEA Project

1. Regional level workshops

The regional level workshop including youth & women with Disabilities on human rights including rights of persons with disabilities and gender awareness and education through leadership has been completed in Western & Southern and Central provinces. 56 participants with disability have participated and raised the awareness on above thematic areas.

2. UNCRPD easy read version Sign Language Video

The UNCRPD easy read version Sign Language video version has been completed with Sinhala and Tamil subtitles in order to easily communicate with deaf persons who are supposed to participate in the National level Human Rights, CPRD and gender workshop.

3. DRMN Web portal

Design and development of web-based application for the disability Right monitoring system (DRMS) was completed and the system is under test run condition.