All hands together

Dear Debriefers,

I started Disability Debrief in 2020, at a time when international work on disability was flourishing. This newsletter was a way to keep up with all that was going on.

In the years since then it grew more than I could have ever imagined. It became my full-time job and now I make it together with people all over the world. We're able to do this thanks to hundreds of readers making financial contributions.

The Debrief is a home for disability stories told in new and authentic ways, in our own words. We take an independent view and publish exclusive reporting on the key challenges in international disability work. And this newsletter is relied on by leaders in disability activism, policy and research.

This is the time of year I do an annual review, and there's a lot to celebrate about the last twelve months. But the future is worrying, for our community, and for this project.

Funding cuts and rejection of diversity initiatives mean that international work on disability is at risk of falling apart. The Debrief finds itself at a critical place at a critical time.

I need your help to build this work, to serve our global community, and to meet the moment we're in.

Help us meet the moment

If it's comfortable to do so, please contribute to build our work:

• One-off support of any amount.
• Subscribing, monthly at £5, £10 or £20, or annually at a discount.

See also information on subscribing as an organisation or, for gifts of $1,000 more, on making them as a charitable donation in the US.

About this edition

The Debrief has just closed its financial year: for the stats and accounts see the annual report.

Peter Torres Fremlin is editor of Disability Debrief and is from the UK.

Sonaksha is an illustrator and designer from India.

Born out of a global community

In January 2020 I'd been working for nearly a decade on disability rights and development, mostly as a freelancer. I was still living in Cairo, where I'd been learning Arabic for some years, but I didn't know what I wanted to do next.

I loved my work for where it took me – just the year before I'd gotten to visit Chile, Jordan, and Myanmar. Wherever I travelled I met disability activists I felt a deep sense of community with.

This gave me a great view over how our work was developing and how quickly countries all over the world were taking initiatives for disabled people. So I sent the first Disability Debrief, to help my colleagues and friends “stay up-to-date on international disability work”.

An independent voice

One of the reasons I didn't know what to do next was being unsettled in my work. A struggle that I had through my career was a disinterest in telling the stories that my employers wanted me to.

I remember working in Bangladesh with a United Nations agency and suggesting we provide a neutral overview of the crisis we were reacting to. My boss's boss reminded me that in the report we wrote we had to make sure our organisation's flag was flying high.

Coming from that environment, working on the Debrief has been liberating. I've been able to share work that I think has interest, regardless of whose flag is on it. And I've been able to tell stories about disability that match my own and others' lived experiences, rather than some abstract policy framework or well-meaning “inclusion” narrative.

I've had to be creative to find ways to fund the work in a way that keeps us free of the flags. The Debrief is published on a pay-what-you-can model, which means the content is open to everyone, always. If those who are comfortable to do so each contribute a little, we can make a publication that serves the public good, and is not tied to the preferences of specific funders.

In our own words

In the years since I sent the first Debrief, this autonomy has given me space to develop my own independent voice and ability to express it. In the past year, I've used that to build a platform for others to share their own stories, in their own words.

In this period, the Debrief published writing from fourteen different authors, in nine countries. They range from geopolitics in Georgia to tales of fairy-tale travel by wheelchair. Each piece is based on close collaboration, often taking months to produce. And they're stories totally overlooked by mainstream media.

The courage to see it through

The other way that I've used the independent voice of the Debrief is to report exclusively on global disability rights.

Last year I published the first investigative reporting I've ever done, uncovering the financial mismanagement and governance crisis at the International Disability Alliance, the organisation responsible for representing disabled people globally. I learned on-the-job how to interview sources and make sure the reporting was rigorous.

But perhaps harder than learning to do it was having the confidence to see it through. I knew that powerful people might not like transparency brought to the subject, and I knew it might impact the funding for the Debrief.

But I believe the disability community has a right to know what representative organisations are doing in our name. I had confidence in the rigour of my work, and the whole point of this project is to be authentic. So, even though I was scared, I pressed send.

The cost of independence

I appreciate how this work has secured the trust of many in our community. But it's still lonely being a rare independent voice. And, in the past few months, the cost of independence has increased dramatically.

Even just a few weeks into the Trump Presidency, I could feel the sudden change. I was reporting on the global (and devastating) impact of the US aid cuts on disabled people. It was morally draining to see how callous these actions were.

And the lines were immediately redrawn. My contacts shifted onto more secure messaging apps. Nearly everyone wanted to speak anonymously. An international NGO was willing to summarise the impact on disabled people, but not put their name to it.

But I am not anonymous. I used to make my living freelancing – I couldn't do this reporting if I wanted to get assignments from organisations who still hoped for funding from the US. And now even travel to the US has become a thorny question for journalists.

And I am acutely aware of how many in the Debrief community are reeling from these political changes. Colleagues and readers have lost their jobs, programmes are being shut down, organisations are at risk. Decades of knowledge and partnerships may be lost.

A new role in a new world order

The cost of an independent view has risen, as has the cost of speaking on disability and diversity issues. And as their cost rises, they become more valuable.

The Debrief started as community publication for a sector that was flourishing. But now international disability work is at risk of crumbling apart, and it means the Debrief has a very different role.

I hope the Debrief can be part of what keeps us in touch, and where we think through what is happening and how to react to it.

Political changes have serious implications for disabled people and disability advocacy. I'm commissioning reporting from Argentina, El Salvador and Hungary. We need to be connected internationally, and learn from each other how backsliding democracies and authoritarian actions affect disabled people and how they can be responded to.

Questions of security and anonymity were, in the past years, issues I only needed to deal with occasionally, like covering an activist speaking against the military junta in Myanmar. But now I regularly need to have careful discussions with contributors to make sure they are not taking undue risks.

And, with all this said, I am aware that, as editor, I cannot let bad news take over the publication. We need joy. Part of this publication has to be about the beauty of disabled lives and the community we make with each other.

All hands together

The community we make with each other is also what makes the Debrief itself.

My favourite example of this is how I.K. Ero's piece, This is War, came about. The fact I even know I.K. comes out of how she, and African Albinism Network, corrected language I'd used in previous reporting. From that exchange I saw what an insightful advocate she was. And when I invited her to share some of her lived experience, her stories left me and her colleagues with our mouths agape.

The resulting piece combines these personal experiences with her advocacy of many years. She brings a deep humanity to tackle the awful violence faced by people with albinism. And thanks to an introduction from I.K. it is beautifully illustrated by Athenkosi Kwinana, a visual artist with albinism.

It's a piece that comes out of the Debrief community and it's something only the Debrief could publish. And this is just one of the many collaborations that make this newsletter.

I now count on increasing editorial support behind-the-scenes, where Celestine Fraser has joined Áine Kelly-Costello in shaping and developing this work. I work intensely with illustrators Kinanty Andini and Sonaksha, whose work brings an amazing visual dimension to our stories. (Sonaksha's illustration gave the title for this piece).

On the Debrief we can go deeper than we can with other publications. I edit, encourage, sometimes mentor, and always learn. It is an incredible honour for me to see how we grow together. I am, for example, very proud to be part of Kinanty's journey as an artist, visible from her first Debrief illustration to her latest.

Hands reaching into pockets

The miracle of media made in community is that we don't have to ask permission from non-disabled editors or prove our value to social media algorithms. If we support the work made by independent creators, we get more of it.

The Debrief is possible because its community just does that. Over 400 readers now contribute financially, either as individuals or through through their organisations subscribing. Over the last twelve months, fundraising reached almost £91,400 (around $120,000), the best year so far.

This money pays for my salary to work on this full-time, and lets me pay writers, illustrators, editing support, web hosting and other costs.

This year I could pay the people that work with me to make this content over £18,000 (20% of the budget). And I was proud to start paying it forward to other creators, investing £1,600 (2%) in micro-grants and subscriptions to other disability media. For all the details, see the accounts.

I wish I could stop the story there, and celebrate the extraordinary fact we get paid to do beautiful and fulfilling work.

What happens next

Starting a new financial year, the Debrief has funding that lets it continue, but it has lost the funding it needs to grow. What happens next is down to you.

The single largest funder of the past few years recently told me they aren't renewing their funding this year. They made up 20% of last year's income. I anticipate losing a couple of smaller funders too.

I'm happy to share that two of the organisations already supporting the work can increase their contributions this year. But that further support doesn't yet make up the anticipated losses in budget, and it also leaves the project over-dependent on the largest remaining funder.

My ambitions for the next twelve months are for half of the editions to be written by contributors. I want to tell disability stories in creative new ways and I've started preparations for an Easy Read version of the newsletter. I want to commission insightful and beautiful work that changes the way we understand the disabled experience.

But I can't do that without further support.

Help to meet the moment

This February saw the most visitors to the Debrief website of any month so far. I'm proud of the great content we published, but I know it is more to do with people facing crisis, and needing the news more than ever.

After publishing this piece, I'll go around the organisations that use the Debrief and I'll ask for their support. I know many are facing their own funding challenges. But this is work they rely on, that benefits our global community, and is read by the donor organisations that we all need to be investing more in disability rights.

And I also need help from readers. If it's comfortable to do so, please support directly as an individual. This publication is read by grassroots activists in the Global South (I prefer if you don't pay anything) and professionals in the Global North (please consider it).

Your support will help us build this work, provide a unique platform for diverse voices in our global community, and maintain an independent position. Your support will help us meet the moment.

It is not the time to be hitting the brakes. Our community needs a trusted resource that keeps us connected. The next few years are set to be the most important work of my life.

Please help me keep my foot on the gas.

Peter

Outro

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Sonaksha for the beautiful illustration and their vision of how the Debrief is made.

Thanks to Celestine Fraser for editing this piece and to Áine Kelly-Costello for detailed feedback. Thanks also to Anne and James who saw earlier versions, as well as to Eddie, James, Susan and others who've helped me understand how to approach fundraising.

And thanks to all the readers and organisations whose support makes this publication possible.