TCI Programs
Quarterly Highlights
(March-April-May)
TCI has supported the development and capacity building of a number of OPDs since inception, across global south regions. TCI has created and tested several program instruments to build the capacity of its national, individual, and organizational members. TCI has designed its programs in a way to strengthen the national OPD networks for advocacy, movement building, and inclusion in various national policies and programs.
MARCH
Fellowships
TCI enrolled two fellows for the 2023 cycle, Sera Osborne from PSA, Fiji, and Silvestre Barragán from A.L.C.E, Colombia.
Our Fellows, as part of the fellowship program, are carrying out various programs, awareness, advocacy, and peer support activities for mobilizing people with psychosocial disabilities in Colombia and Fiji.
Silvestre initiated various conversations through public events and peer support about violence with people with psychosocial disabilities inside institutions, harm created through mental health systems, and exclusion from mainstream services. During the sessions, they promoted the need for alternative therapies, reforms in mental health legal systems, and support systems for people with psychosocial disabilities inside communities.
ALCE also marked the international day of Trans Visibility and organized a public event.
PSA participated in a regional cross-disability conference organized by PDF and raised the challenges and barriers faced by women and girls with psychosocial disabilities. During the plenaries, Sera in her speeches pointed to social inclusion and access to mainstream services for people with psychosocial disabilities.
Sera also participated in Advisory Capacity Development and Exchange Pacific Project for Disability Inclusion, organized by CBM in collaboration with PDF, and was appointed as a member and a trailblazer on the Advisory Council.
APRIL
OPD Support Grant
Followed by a successful fellowship cycle in 2022, Samuel Macharia, CIC-K was supported with an OPD support grant for continuing the awareness, advocacy, and capacity-building programs for its national members in Kenya in the context of Addis declaration for East Africa.
CIC-K was successful in establishing its first board of governance. 
- Sera was nominated by TCI to participate in a Moth Storytelling workshop, organized by UN Women, held in Bangkok, where she gained insights into the intricacies of storytelling and the art of concise summarization.
- Sera organized community awareness sessions and participated in gender and disability consultation meetings organized by cross-disability and government stakeholder
A.L.C.E collaborated with an inter-American coalition for deinstitutionalization to support the TCI campaign #StoppsychiatrizingSDGs and conducted various advocacy actions.
A.L.C.E developed a model to provide legal assistance to people with psychosocial disabilities who are forcefully institutionalized and put on medications.
A.LC.E runs a peer support network (GAM) and organized a nature outing for GAM members with the intention of establishing a recreational space that would promote community building and base-building.
MAY
Microgrants
TCI received a total no. of 16 applications from 11 countries, 10 from Global South countries, and 1 from Global North for the Microgrants cycle 2023-2024. TCI selected 6 organizations for conducting advocacy activities in the context of Deinstitutionalization and Community Inclusion.
OPD Support Grant
CIC-K facilitated a capacity-building session for self-advocates of KAIH on CRPD principles and community support services for people with psychosocial disabilities.
CIC-K also supported PDO-Kenya and sensitized their staff members on Article 19 and the right to live independently in the community for making their services non-discriminatory.
CIC-K mobilized people with psychosocial disabilities from Kisumu County and built their capacity on CRPD for leading advocacy initiatives in collaboration with the county government.
Fellowships
A.L.C.E hosted a public event with their Mad People’s School titled “Beware! Abnormals are coming! This gathering provided a platform for individuals to engage in a meaningful dialogue about the significant issues surrounding colonialism, eugenics, and racism within healthcare systems.
A.L.C.E also participated in a regional meeting of the gender and disability movement in Latin America to set include issues of trans pathologizing.
A.L.C.E participated in a TCI webinar as a key speaker from Colombia who was once colonized and gave their opinion on “Disrupting Colonialism & Biomedical Reductionism in Mental Health: Enhancing Equity & Protecting Human Rights.”
A.LC.E participated in the national consultation of drafting a bill for trans rights in Colombia and advocated for the inclusion of disabled trans persons in the bill.
- PSA organized a series of awareness sessions on individuals with psychosocial disabilities. Collaborating with OPDs, they conducted these sessions as part of school-based awareness programs and engaged multiple stakeholders.
- Sera organized an informative session at the University of the South Pacific (USP), involving lecturers, to explore the idea of reasonable accommodations. The main objective of the session was to foster understanding, sensitivity, and proactive approaches among the lecturers, with the ultimate goal of establishing an inclusive learning environment at USP.
- PSA engaged with the Ministry of Women, children, and poverty alleviation to share challenges and barriers faced by persons with psychosocial disabilities to access social protection schemes provided by the government. PSA advocated with the Ministry on providing the required social protection services and making the existing services inclusive of people with psychosocial disabilities.
