Finance practice counsel Colin Graham has organised a pro-bono project alongside disability initiative The Dream and several other charities to help disabled people in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, reports The Lawyer newspaper in London.

Giant screens

The firm – co-headquartered in the UK capital and Washington DC – also helped organise the Disability Sport for Development (DSD) charity, assisting countries with a low penetration of disabled sport to develop facilities and support athletes. Mr Graham’s work has seen Haiti gain the television rights to broadcast the Paralympic games in the country in a DSD funded deal arranged with games organisers LOCOG. The deal involves the UN placing giant screens in city centres.
Mr Graham and the various charities have also combined to ensure that Haiti will be represented at the Paralympics for the first time, by a male javelin thrower and a female javelin and shot-put competitor. Mr Graham told the newspaper: ‘We’re working on initiatives to try to change perceptions in Haiti that disabled people should not be treated as second class citizens so that people are prepared to offer jobs and see them as valuable members of society.’