DONATE

Sightsavers’ Equal World campaign wins Third Sector award

October 2020
A group of women hold hands in a large circle.

Sightsavers’ disability rights campaign, Equal World, has won the Digital Innovation category in the 2020 Third Sector Awards with its unique campaign petition app.

The app, developed by Sightsavers’ in-house technical team, allowed staff in programme countries to collect signatures for the Equal World petition from people living in areas without internet coverage. Participants signed their name with a finger on a phone or tablet that had the app downloaded. Their information was stored until the petition signature collector returned to an area with coverage, at which point the data was uploaded and available to Sightsavers’ UK-based campaign team.

Tessa Murphy, Sightsavers’ campaign manager, said: “We’re thrilled and proud to have won Third Sector’s Digital Innovation award. The Equal World petition app meant that we could reach people living in remote areas who are traditionally excluded from this type of online activity. We were able to add their voices to our petition calling for the United Nations to uphold disability rights, and present their petition signatures to the Under-Secretary-General Ana Maria Menéndez at UN headquarters in New York.

“Our in-house technical team did a great job in developing the app, and our advocacy advisers and staff in country offices worked tirelessly to collect signatures using the app out in the field in countries from Guinea to Pakistan. All of this helped us achieve our goal of collecting 50,000 petition signatures in support of a more equal world.”

More information and a full list of award winners can be found on the Third Sector website.

Join our Equal World campaign

We fight for the rights of people with disabilities around the world.

About the campaign

Read all our latest news stories

News from Sightsavers
Two young girls talk to each other in a playground. One of the girls has a physical disability and is using a wheelchair.

Global Disability Summit 2025: Sightsavers calls for stronger commitment to inclusion

Sightsavers will host two events and two exhibition spaces at the event in Berlin on 2-3 April, calling on attendees to join us in targeting inequality.

March 2025
Minahil, who wears spectacles, smiles broadly as she sits at her classroom desk.

Sightsavers at the CIES education conference 2025

We’re attending the conference in Chicago on 22-26 March to share Sightsavers’ expertise, engage with the education community and explore how we can help to transform inclusive education.

March 2025
Sightsavers’ programme officer Salome Njeri Mbugua-Mutua receives the award on stage alongside two academy instructors.

Sightsavers’ IT Bridge Academy wins top-performing academy award

The IT Bridge Academy, which supports young people with disabilities to train for a career in IT, received the accolade from technology company Cisco.

February 2025

Learn about our work to save sight