Throughout June and July our team have been in regular contact with our member organisations around the globe. We have discussed with many of them the situation in their country in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and the specific challenges they are facing at this time. We are using this feedback to guide our plans to support the global Down syndrome community.

Our members are telling us that people with Down syndrome continue to face discrimination in access to health care and also in Government responses to the pandemic.

Our members have sought guidance from us on how they can lobby their Governments to include people with Down syndrome in their response. Our members need our help to advocate for the rights of people with Down syndrome at this time.

Our members are also reporting substantial financial strain due to loss of funding and donations. In response to this we organised and delivered a webinar - Fundraising before and after COVID-19 - in which we explored how COVID-19 has impacted fundraising and discussed alternative strategies to bring in money during this time.

This webinar was the fourth in our COVID-19 webinar series, during which we have delivered training and guidance to help our members to support their local communities. We are planning future webinars to cover topics that will be of most use to our members at this time. You can watch recordings from past webinars and see what is coming up in our Events section.

We would like to take this opportunity to encourage our members to reach out to us. We have a wealth of knowledge and access to experts to support you in your work.

We are here to support everyone in the global Down syndrome community. We would like to learn more about how COVID-19 is affecting people with Down syndrome and those who support them in countries around the world, so that we can work out the best ways to support and advocate for the global Down syndrome community at this time.

If you have not done so already, please complete our community survey to tell us how the situation is affecting you or the person/s you support at this time.

COMMUNITY SURVEY

Deadline for submissions is 30 July 2020.