PFDA Vocational Training Centre
PFDA-Vocational Training Center (PFDA-VTC) is a social welfare organisation based in Dhaka, that builds skills and promotes employment opportunities for…
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The Zero Project, an initiative of the Essl Foundation, focuses on the rights of persons with disabilities globally. It provides a platform where the most innovative and effective solutions to problems that persons with disabilities face, are shared. The Zero Project builds on a growing network of over 4,000 organizations and disability experts with and without disabilities in over 160 countries. With its Conference, Report and Awards, the Zero Project disseminates and promotes replicable and innovative solutions that have overcome the problems people with disabilities face, by raising public awareness of the issues and stimulating reform, thereby acting as a catalyst for a world without barriers.
The Essl Foundation, Fundación Descúbreme and Ashoka joined forces to initiate the first Accelerator to support the internationalization of innovative disability solutions for a barrier-free world. From the hundreds of nominations for Zero Project Awards, ten initiatives are selected each year for the Zero Project Impact Transfer Program.
Over the course of the programme the selected initiatives receive training, mentoring, tailored support, networking, and visibility to further replicate their innovation and impact in other geographies, in collaboration with local replication partners. The goal is to make these initiatives ready for replication, to connect them with relevant replication partners, and to further support the replication through our Alumni Community.
“ I am grateful for the experience of the Impact Transfer programme. It allowed me to examine my project; and by introducing me to different transfer models, it helped me define our collective work in a way that others can best replicate and transfer to their communities. The process was extremely helpful, especially to share this with a cohort of like-minded people with a passion for social impact.” Zero Project – Impact Transfer participant
Discover more on the Program and some Impact Transfer examples here: Zero Project – Impact Transfer Report 2020
Supported projects
Egalite – Online Job Recruitment Platform
Egalite Inclusion & Diversity is a Brazilian social business that has developed an online recruitment platform, incorporating a behavioural profile…
Seco Chile – Inclusive and Ecological Car wash
Seco Chile is a social enterprise that provides ecological car-washing services to businesses and institutions across Chile. Currently, 55 per…
Helm – Workplace Inclusive Solutions
Helm is a Cairo-based foundation focusing on the promotion of disability inclusion, with a particular emphasis on employment. Starting in…
Jamba – Career for All
JAMBA is a Bulgarian NGO and a social enterprise supporting job seekers with disabilities and assisting companies with recruitment and…
Youth4Jobs – College Connect
Youth4Jobs Foundation is an NGO based in Hyderabad, India, focused on employment and education opportunities for students with disabilities. Its…
I Love Coffee – Coffee shops run by Deaf young people
I Love Coffee is a social enterprise based in Cape Town, South Africa, that is building a chain of coffee…
Enable India – Educate Yourself Easily (EYE) Tool
EnAble India is a large Indian NGO, headquartered in Bengaluru. Its Educate Yourself Easily (EYE) Tool is an open source…
DeafTawk – Sign Language Relay Service
DeafTawk is a for-profit start-up technology company based in Islamabad, Pakistan. It has developed a mobile application that connects deaf…
myAbility Talent® Program
myAbility is an Austrian social enterprise offering strategic consultancy services to companies on disability inclusion. It operates in Austria, Germany…
Association of Shared Learning ELA – One School For All
The ‘One School for All’ model was developed by the Association of Shared Learning, an NGO based in Sofia, Bulgaria….
Nayi Disha Resource Center
Nayi Disha is an Indian NGO that supports families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its free online platform…
inABLE – Computer Labs for the Blind Programme
inABLE is a US-based NGO working across Kenya to increase access to assistive technology for students who are blind or…
Manzil Center – PRIDE Programme
The Manzil Center is a non-profit organization focused on Inclusive Education and employment based in the Emirate of Sharjah in…
Capito Mecklenburg – New ways to art
Capito, an Austrian/German social franchise network, and the State Museum of the City of Schwerin in Germany have joined forces…
Humanity & Inclusion – Inclusive Schooling Strategy
Humanity & Inclusion is an international development NGO based in France. In 2012, the country team in Senegal initiated the…
Universidad Andres Bello – Vocational training programme
Universidad Andres Bello is a private university based in Chile. They have developed a three-year vocational training programme for students…
Amar Seva Sangam – App-based Early Intervention Therapy
Amar Seva Sangam is an NGO working in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They have developed an app where…
KVPS – On the Verge of Adulthood
The Finnish Service Foundation for People with an Intellectual Disability (KVPS), an NGO working across Finland, has developed On the…
Livox
Livox International is a Brazilian social enterprise that has developed Livox – an alternative communication platform that can be used…
Solar Ear
Solar Ear is a social business that started in Botswana in 2002. Now headquartered in Canada, the company manufactures low-cost,…
Profamilia, ASDOWN Colombia, LICA and PAIIS
Four organizations in Colombia are working together to promote and safeguard the sexual and reproductive rights of people with intellectual…
Escola de Gente – Accessibility Promotion Agents
Escola de Gente is a large NGO headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and working across Brazil on issues of inclusion,…
The Arc of the United States – NCCJD, Pathways to Justice®
Since 2013 The Arc of the United States – a nationwide advocacy organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities…
DanceAbility International
DanceAbility International is an NGO based in Oregon, USA, with affiliate organizations around the world. DanceAbility offers classes, workshops and…
Empowerment Through Integration
Empowerment Through Integration (ETI) is a non-profit organization committed to developing a more inclusive society and breaking the cycle of…
ENOSH – SEEDS OF CHANGE
Enosh (The Israeli Mental Health Association) is a non-profit organization and the largest provider of community mental health services in…
GRETA & STARKS – GRETA APP
Greta & Starks, a technology-based social business in Berlin, Germany, has developed the free GRETA mobile app to make cinema…
Unidos Somos Iguales
Unidos Somos Iguales (Unidos, “Together We Are All Equal”) is an NGO based in Monterrey, Mexico that runs social inclusion…
Kinderhände – Bilingual Sign Language
Bilingual Classes Supporting Families to Learn Sign Language Together. kinderhände teaches Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) to hearing families of children…
Fightthestroke – Mirrorable
Fightthestroke, an Italian social enterprise founded in 2014, has developed an online platform called ‘Mirrorable’ to support rehabilitation of young…
World Access for the Blind – Flash Sonar
World Access for the Blind teaches blind people of any age, background, or ability, and it believes that anyone can learn to develop functional images of their environment to find more freedom by ‘seeing’ in a new way.
Jaipur Foot Organization – BMVSS
The Jaipur Foot Organization provides a variety of assistance, such as artificial limbs, calipers, wheelchairs, and tricycles – all free of charge and delivered directly to the user.
Enable India – Namma Vaani
Namma Vaani (meaning “our voice”) is a voice-based social network, where information is shared via mobile phones (no smartphone and web-access needed) for the disability community in rural and marginalised areas of India.
Poses Family Foundation – Understood.org
Incorporating the principles of Universal Design for Learning, Understood.org translates expert information into easy-to-use, engaging, and practical information that helps parents on a day-to-day basis to assist children with learning and attention issues.
Beit Issie Shapiro – Friendship Park
The playground was developed involving all relevant stakeholders, including people with disabilities, who followed each development stage to ensure that all perspectives and needs were addressed.
Gallaudet University – VL2 Storybook Creator
The storybook applications built from the VL2 Storybook Creator provide a bilingual reading experience for deaf and hearing impared readers through high-quality storytelling in both sign language and printed text.
APA (Austrian Press Agency) – TopEasy
Five times a week Top Easy is presented as a compact news overview accessible to people with reading difficulties, including four to six of the most important news stories of the day in the fields of politics, economics, history, culture, and sports.
Suryakanti Foundation Centre – Child Development Monitoring for Rural Areas
The Suryakanti Foundation Centre provides clinical services and education for young children with disabilities as well as parental instruction on how to care for children with a disability.
Karuna Foundation – Inspire2care
The community owns the Inspire2Care model’s concept and takes a leadership role in implementing disability-friendly structures by utilizing resources provided by local government authorities.
MoMA – The fully accessible art museum
MoMA’s access programmes are inclusive to the visually impaired by offering tours that provide the opportunity to touch and experience the art while asking questions and receiving audio descriptions of each work.
Program Partners
Mentors
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Doris Rothauer
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Stephan Dertnig
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Didem Oguz
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Vishal Anand
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Walter Emberger
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Karin Schetelig
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Helmut Maukner
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Philipp Haydn
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Nassir Katuramu
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David Banes
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Rizwan Tayabali
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Susan Scott-Parker
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Valeria Duflot
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Rainer Reich
Get in touch
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Alexander Kesselring
IMPACT TRANSFERAshoka gemeinnützige GmbH
Haus der Philanthropie
Schottenring 16/3.OG
1010 WienT +43 1 38 40 100
akesselring@ashoka.org -
Löic van Cutsem
IMPACT TRANSFERAshoka gemeinnützige GmbH
Haus der Philanthropie
Schottenring 16/3.OG
1010 WienT +43 1 38 40 100
lvancutsem@ashoka.org -
Sumita Kunashakaran
Zero ProjectEssl Foundation
Haus der Philanthropie
Schottenring 16/3.OG
1010 Wien