COVID-19 response

Since March 2020, DSi has been working hard to respond to the evolving situation with COVID-19 and support our members and the global Down syndrome community during these difficult times.

Compiling and sharing up-to-date and accurate information on COVID-19 and appropriate responses to it.

We have created a dedicated area on our website for information and resources related to people with Down syndrome and COVID-19:

COVID-19 FAQ's

COVID-19 vaccination advocacy.

We have produced a COVID-19 vaccination advocacy toolkit to help our supporters advocate for the necessary prioritisation of people with Down syndrome in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in countries worldwide.

The toolkit includes:

what we can do together to create a united global voice;
potential advocacy activities;
evidence to support the prioritisation of people with Down syndrome;
what health and research organisations are doing;
what disability and advocacy organisations are doing;
supporting materials including letter templates.

Click below to access this toolkit:

COVID-19 TOOLKIT

Gathering experiences and evidence.

We are working with our member organisations to gather experiences of people with Down syndrome, families and advocates and other evidence of what is happening related to COVID-19 around the world. This includes:

The availability of information in accessible formats;
How people with Down syndrome and their families are being included in responses to the crisis;
Impact of quarantines on people with Down syndrome and their families;
Support available for people with Down syndrome and their families during the crisis;
Provision of healthcare for people with Down syndrome affected by COVID-19.

It is very important that the rights of people with Down syndrome are respected, protected and fulfilled. Read more about this here:

COVID-19 FAQ's

International collaboration.

We are working with the international disability community and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) to ensure a disability-inclusive response to the COVID-19 crisis.

An example of a recent action is supporting IDA to take a letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) advocating for actions to address discrimination in medical responses to COVID-19 on the basis of disability.

This resulted in a response from the Director General of WHO calling on governments to ensure this discrimination does not happen. Click here to read more about the letter and response:

LETTER TO WHO

Support for member organisations.

We are working with our member organisations to identify the challenges they are facing and the support they need in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in their countries.

We have run a series of webinars with our member organisations both to discuss the challenges and to deliver training on topics that can help them at this time.

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