About us
Who We Are
Diverse Empowerment Foundation (DEF) is a cross-movement, disability-led organization rooted in care, access, and justice. We work to uplift communities too often left behind, including persons with disabilities, Diverse persons with and without disabilities, survivors, creatives, and people navigating displacement. Founded in Uganda and shaped by lived experience, DEF uses narrative change, research, healing-centered organizing, and strategic advocacy to build power at the margins.
Our Mission
To empower marginalized communities by dismantling barriers, advocating for inclusion, and fostering environments where diversity thrives.
Our Vision
To create a world where diversity is celebrated, and every individual has equitable access to opportunities, resources, and recognition.
What Makes Us Different
The values we live by
Advocacy & Narrative Change
We challenge stigma through storytelling, visual campaigns, and policy influence. By centering the lived truths of marginalized communities.
Disability Justice & Inclusive Organizing
Disability is not the problem, exclusion is. We advance community-led solutions rooted in access, dignity, and self-determination, guided by the CRPD and feminist disability principles.
Creative Resistance & Sauti Lounge
Art is protest. Stories are survival. Sauti Lounge supports creatives and storytellers who reimagine liberation through writing, painting, performance, and photography.
Cross-Movement Solidarity
We don’t work alone. Our organizing connects local, regional, and global partners in pursuit of disability-inclusive development, queer liberation, and rights-based responses to crisis.
Our Partners
Let's change the world, Join us now!
Whether you’re into research, advocacy, creative storytelling, or making complicated policy actually make sense, we’ve got a spot for you. Fair warning: you might accidentally become an expert on intersectional disability justice while helping Diverse persons with and without disabilities in Uganda build power.