Institutional Identity
TDOU is the regional umbrella union for Organizations of Persons with Disabilities in Tigray. It represents 15 legally recognized member OPDs and more than 150 zonal and district-level branches.
The Union brings together organizations representing persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, psychosocial, and other disabilities. Through this structure, TDOU works to ensure that the collective voice of persons with disabilities is reflected in humanitarian response, public policy, post-conflict recovery, and long-term development.
Our Vision and Mission
Vision
An inclusive and accessible Tigray where all persons with disabilities exercise their full human rights and participate meaningfully in the region’s development.
Mission
To empower member Organizations of Persons with Disabilities through capacity building, evidence-based advocacy, and strategic resource mobilization to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
Grounded in the UNCRPD
TDOU’s work is guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
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Non-discrimination
Equal treatment and opportunities for all persons regardless of disability.
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Participation
Persons with disabilities lead and shape decisions that affect their lives.
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Accessibility
Removing barriers so persons with disabilities can access services, spaces, and information.
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Equality before the law
Legal recognition and protection for persons with disabilities on an equal basis.
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Inclusion in humanitarian response and recovery
Persons with disabilities are included as equal participants in humanitarian response, peacebuilding, and post-conflict recovery.
Human Rights and Transitional Justice
TDOU serves as the Regional Co-Chair of the National Civil Society Organizations–Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Coordination Platform. Through this role, the Union works to amplify the voices of persons with disabilities within human rights, peacebuilding, and transitional justice processes.
TDOU supports disability-inclusive transitional justice by strengthening the capacity of local CSOs and member OPDs, and by advocating for disability-disaggregated documentation of violations and experiences of persons with disabilities during the conflict.
Role as an Umbrella OPD Union
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Coordination
TDOU connects member OPDs, branches, civil society actors, government institutions, and development partners around shared disability inclusion priorities.
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Advocacy
TDOU advocates for the rights, dignity, and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in policy, humanitarian response, recovery, and development.
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Capacity Building
TDOU strengthens member OPDs through organizational assessments, training, technical support, and resource mobilization.
Our Leadership
TDOU is led by people who are part of the community they serve — bringing lived experience, professional expertise, and a direct stake in the work.
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The image captures a middle-aged man with brown skin and a short-cropped hairstyle, wearing dark square-shaped aviator sunglasses and a thin mustache. He is dressed professionally in a light-grey suit jacket over a white and grey vertically striped button-down dress shirt, seated in a grey fabric office chair behind a dark desk. A black Dell computer monitor is positioned to his left. The background is a plain light-beige wall.
Gebrekidan Hadush
Executive Director
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Shewit Enquebaher
Program Director
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Tekeste Desta
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
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Elsa Hagos
Finance Department
Member Organizations
TDOU works with member Organizations of Persons with Disabilities representing different disability groups and community priorities across Tigray.
- Tigray Women with Disability Association (TWDA)
- New Horizon for Disability Development (NHDD)
- Leprosy Association
- Deaf Association
- National Association for the Blind, Mekelle Branch (ENAB)
- Physical Disability Association of Tigray
- Yes We Can
- Nabay Autism Center
- SEN Ethiopia
- Bright Future
- Senay Tegbar Mental Illness
- ROADW
- AKABE Intellectual Disability
- Bruh Tesfa for the Disability
- Egbet Intellectual Disability Association
Board of Directors
TDOU is governed by a Board of Directors drawn directly from its member organizations. Every board member is a leader within the OPD community — bringing lived experience of disability and firsthand knowledge of the challenges TDOU exists to address.
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Yohanes Arkebe
Executive Director, New Horizon for Disability Development (NHDD)
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Letebrhan Kindae
Committee Member, Women with Disability
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Giram Shunoon
Chairman, Parents’ Association for Children with Intellectual Disability
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Girmay Kahssay
Executive Director, ROADW
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Masho Kidanemariam
Executive Director, SEN Ethiopia
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Legese Desta
Chairman, Leprosy Affected People Association
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Nigisti Amare
Committee Member, Women with Disability
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Tadese Gebregezabher
Chairman, Deaf Association
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Halefom Liros
Chairman, Physical Disability Association of Tigray
Partner with TDOU
Work with the regional umbrella union advancing the rights, representation, and inclusion of persons with disabilities across Tigray.