Rockville, Virginia (16 September 2022) – Billion Strong, a Global Nonprofit Organization, the world’s first global identity and pride organization for the community of persons with disabilities, is proud to partner with EnAble India, a pioneering NGO in the employability of persons with disabilities (PwDs).

EnAble India and Billion Strong Corp enter a multitude of partnerships to support our respective objectives of empowering disabled communities across the world. As EnAble India officially becomes Billion Strong’s Country Partner in India, their unison is set to fuel another initiative, Project Discovery. This is an EI Labs initiative aimed at collecting creative solutions designed by persons with disabilities to overcome barriers in daily living. 

Launched in June 2020, Project Discovery is an accessible platform aimed at collating different solutions in the form of short captioned videos and making them available to all. Project Discovery is a crowdsourced compendium of solutions used by persons with disabilities in their everyday lives. Solutions are gathered to address Daily Living, Technology, Communications & IT, Work Place, and  Outdoor challenges.

Many persons with disabilities use simple and innovative solutions in their everyday lives. They develop an alternative method of working to perform tasks that might otherwise be inaccessible. By documenting these solutions, other PwDs can utilize these solutions as well.

Since its launch in 2020, Project Discovery has cataloged over 800 videos: that is 800 fewer barriers for persons with disabilities.

After two years of success, Project Discovery goes international with its latest Discovery Awards to be announced later this year. The international challenge will conclude with two grassroots winners presenting their stories to an international audience at the Zero Project Conference, Vienna, in 2023.

The solution-centric mindset rooted in the belief, ‘Everyone is an Innovator’ has the potential to scale up the empowerment of persons with disabilities. Discovery Awards is an internationally accessible platform to recognize innovative solutions and showcase the stories of grassroots innovators from around the world.

The collaboration with Billion Strong will extend the reach to another 90 countries, including Disability Person’s Organisations, individuals with lived experiences with disabilities, and the disability community worldwide. Through this partnership, different players across geographies, including the Project Discovery India organizations and different stakeholders working for this program, come together under one umbrella for interchanging ideas and solutions coming out of the grassroots.

“Billion Strong is proud to partner with Enable India. We are honored that they have joined us as our country partner in India. Together we will work on various Local, National, and Global programs to advance the rights and access of the disabled community. Our 1.7-billion-person global community is innovative and creative problem solvers. Discovery awards are game changers for our community and will help society understand that we add value when included.” Debra Ruh, Executive Chair, Billion Strong

“EnAble India is happy to partner with Billion Strong, a global movement making a statement we are billion-strong as persons with disability. This ties in very well with the various global programs of EnAble India, one of them being the eiLabs initiative, Discovery Awards. I am very excited for this partnership as we can together reach a billion people with various solutions and build an inclusive planet.” Dipesh Sutariya, Co-Founder & CMD, EnAble India

At present, a YouTube platform serves as a repository of all the curated innovations submitted by the disabled community. Billion Strong, as the largest partner, will add to the international curations from its various allies across the world.

About Billion Strong

Billion Strong is an identity and empowerment organization designed to bring the billions of voices of persons with disabilities together. We are a global community of persons with lived experiences of disabilities that will also celebrate our intersectional allies and accomplices around the world.  We are Stronger Together.  Please join our FREE global movement. 

www.Billion-Strong.org

About EnAble India

EnAble India is a non-profit organization working for economic independence and dignity of persons with disability (PwDs) since 1999, impacting thousands of PwDs and stakeholders. Considered to be a pioneer in employability and employment of persons with disability, EnAble India has catered to the needs of 19 disabilities thus far. We have impacted 325,000+ individuals including persons with disabilities and their families in 28 states and 7 union territories in India. In the past 23 years, EnAble India has collaborated with 726 companies and 229 partner organizations across 1253 locations in 25 countries.

www.enableindia.org

For more information contact:

Dr. LaMondre Pough, CEO, Billion Strong

LaMondre@Billion-Strong.org

Engineer Nabil Eid, CSO, Billion Strong

Nabil@Billion-Strong.org

Debra Ruh, CEO, Ruh Global IMPACT

Executive Chair, Billion Strong

debra@ruhglobal.com

Sayomdeb Mukherjee, Project Discovery Lead, EnAble India

Sayomdeb@enableindia.org

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