People with Disabilities

Founded by Pala Leka, the organization aims to lead the charge in dismantling barriers faced by those living with disabilities through a unique approach that combines the human rights-based model and the social model of disability.

Rural Papua New Guinea grapples with entrenched traditional, cultural, and uninformed perspectives on disability, affecting over a million people in these communities.

As the months progressed, he found it increasingly hard to walk, eventually requiring a wheelchair for mobility. Gibson found attending school difficult, eventually resulting in the heartbreaking decision to leave.

Gibson recognised the lack of representation of people with disabilities at all levels of government. He decided to organise community outreach programs, advocated for improved support and utilised data collected from a PNG-Australia Partnership-supported survey to form the Bulolo Disability Association (BDA) - an organisation that serves as a voice for change.

Their efforts were boosted with support from the Australian Government through the PNG-Australia Partnership.

Law and justice agencies and other groups can now use the Guide to improve communication and build respectful relationships with staff and clients with disabilities.

As a child growing up in Wewak in East Sepik Province, Clare was active and outgoing until one morning in 2006, at just 16 years of age, she had the scary experience of waking up to find that she had lost her hearing.

Britain Inspector Edward Gigi, who is an amputee said, “See our ability and not our disability and accept us into the community, accept us into the workforce and utilise us to the best in doing things in the workforce, community and in homes.”

He made the call during the International Disability Day (IDD) celebration under the theme, ‘Remove Barriers, Make Rights Real’.

Inspector Gigi shared that most of them have disability and are employed and try their best to work hard to show that they can perform but others are being turn down due to their disability.