Unlock the Everyday
Unlock the Everyday is a campaign backed by ATscale and partner organisations from across the global health, development, and disability sectors.
ATscale is a cross-sector global partnership, hosted by UNOPS, with a mission to transform people’s lives through assistive technology.
ATscale catalyses action to ensure that, by 2030, an additional 500 million people in low- and middle-income countries get the life-changing assistive technology they need. https://unlocktheeveryday.org/who-we-are/
On Monday 23rd September 2024, campaigners took over Times Square to call on decision-makers gathering for the United Nations General Assembly to prioritise policies that will improve the lives of millions of people, including those with disabilities, chronic health conditions, physical impairments, and older people around the world.
Campaigners from across the world and representatives of development agencies with local community groups in New York sent a strong message to the policymakers gathered for the UN’s landmark Summit of the Future, part of this year’s General Assembly. We won’t achieve the SDGs without increasing access to assistive technology!
Amongst those in attendance was inspirational speaker and disability campaigner Anne Wafula Strike, who spoke at a reception that evening just off Times Square.
The campaign is raising awareness that without increased investment and national policies to improve access to assistive technology, it will be impossible for UN Member States to meet the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – especially overcoming poverty (goal #1), good health and well-being (goal #3) enabling quality education (goal #4), gender equality (#5), reducing equalities (goal #10), and unlocking decent work and economic growth (goal #8).
The Times Square take-over saw advocates unveil a giant eye test, believed to be the largest ever displayed. The eye test transformed into a powerful message: “Need Glasses? one billion people around the world do today”, highlighting one of several life-transforming assistive products campaigners are calling for better access to.
To learn more about the campaign and to add your support, please visit the Unlock the Everyday website.
PHOTO
Front, L-R: Carlos Leon: NY SCION, Maria Jose Carranza: UNICEF youth ambassador, Guatemala, Anne Wafula Strike: Paralympian, speaker, author and inclusion campaigner.
Back L-R: Maryam Bukar – Hassan: Storyteller, award winning poet-advocate, Fernando Botelho: UNICEF, Sara Basson: Google, Saima Saleem: Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York, Gopal Mitra, Global Lead on Disability and Development, UNICEF, Irene Mbari-Kirika: inABLE and Dr. Oteri Okolo, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria