Disability affects the quality of life of the individual, and seriously jeopardises the livelihood of the whole family and care givers. Approximately four million Tanzanians live with an impairment and nearly half of those are children. People with disabilities in Tanzania are amongst the poorest of the poor.

A large number of disabilities are caused by poverty. Poor nutrition, dangerous working conditions, limited access to vaccination programmes, poor health and maternal care, poor hygiene, bad sanitation and inadequate information about the causes and treatment of impairments are some of the causes. In many cases, disability is preventable.

Just a fraction of people living with a disability in Tanzania have access to comprehensive rehabilitation and appropriate basic services. Services are scarce while costs of transport and existing services are prohibitively high for most people. In addition, people are often unaware of the availability of services.