Mada Celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities With its New Awareness Campaign

In accordance with International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated around the world on 3 December, Mada is launching a campaign to educate the general public in Qatar about its role and to raise awareness about the capabilities of persons with disabilities. Through the campaign, the nonprofit organization is encouraging the local community to understand that disability does not mean incapability.

“At Mada, we set out to empower persons with disabilities by unlocking and maximizing their potential through different technological and educational solutions,” said Maha al Mansouri, CEO, Mada. “The first step in this process is raising awareness within the community and relaying the message that persons with disabilities are just as capable as the rest of us are to be contributing members of our society. This especially applies for young people with disabilities, and we aim to help their parents and their communities understand that they have the same potential as any child does when they are properly directed to a channel that suits their individual needs and situation.”

Mada’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities campaign was held for the entire day on the 3rd of December. To help spread the word about the campaign, balloons were distributed with three main messages printed on them: Enable everyone’s ambitions, Access to success, and Forget disability – talk ability. The goal of the campaign is to broadcast and embody these pillars which Mada seeks to fulfill every day.

As a nonprofit organization that operates under the umbrella of the ministry of transport and communication, Mada is dedicated to connecting persons with disabilities to the world of information and communication technology, and since its inception in 2010, Mada strives to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities and to secure better involvement for Persons with Disability within the digital community in Qatar. To support Qatar’s National Vision 2030 and its National Development Strategies (NDS), Mada aims to fulfill the national standard of an ICT-skilled population whose members have equal access to technology and can succeed in a knowledge based economy, regardless of their disabilities.

Mada’s strategic and operational focus revolve around three key areas – Education, Employment, and Community – and four core service offerings – Relationships & Partnerships, Advisory & Policy, Direct Services, and Center of Excellence. With these main pillars, Mada works to increase the number of persons with disabilities in Qatar receiving quality education, participating in the local and global workforce, and gaining physical and digital accessibility in the community by 2018.