The Organization

Universal Design
Our work

Abloom is both an NGO and a cultural institution that has owned and organized its film festival since 2012, focusing on inclusion, education, and cultural representation for children and young people with disabilities.

About the organization

  • Abloom is a Norwegian advocacy NGO raising awareness about and creating meaningful and empowering activities for:
  • People living with a disability in general; And, more specifically for children -and young disabled
    people with an ethnic minority background living in Oslo and Norway;
  • Children, refugees, asylum seekers in Norway living with a disability. Especially children, young people, families and support network for all the aforementioned.
  • We also communicate with and engage governmental and non-governmental organizations, private business and other areas of society to join the fight for a better life for all people living with disability.
  • We now run a year-round organization and a pop up festival for children called Mini Abloom. We help refugees and asylum seekers, we run a daily free consultancy service for those who need it. We participate in all kinds of platforms, political environments, lobby meetings, and the list is long. However, we are just getting started!

This is what we believe in

  • No one should be excluded because they are born differently.
  • Taboos must be broken – knowledge shall be strengthened. And vulnerable individuals must benefit.
  • Everyone, regardless of identity, is welcome to do something good for others through Abloom.

Target group

  1. Minority language children, young people and adults with disabilities – and their relatives.
  2. Families with children living below the poverty line – where one or more members have a disability.

What we do

  • We arrange the Abloom Film Festival, Mini Abloom, and Abloom Summer Days and have a number of projects. It is an effective and good meeting place for vulnerable minorities and professionals.
  • Abloom is at the forefront of the fight to break taboos, including through the project “Disability – not a divine punishment”.
  • Abloom starts and participates in debates about disabled people and their needs.
  • Abloom encourages increased participation in society among disabled minority language speakers and their families.
  • Abloom recruits, organizes and trains volunteers with minority backgrounds – many of them are refugees and vulnerable dual minorities.
  • Abloom sits on various councils and committees that ensure good interaction. We also collaborate with researchers in Norway, and are happy to contribute more in research and development.
  • Abloom advises and supervises the target group all year round.

Abloom turns 11 this year! In week 47 during the Abloom Film Festival and Abloom Awareness Week there will be a big party and many good events. We can’t wait to see you. Here you can sign up for our events.

Abloom Awareness Week (started in 2020) has been added in the same week as the Abloom Film Festival and is fully focused on raising awareness of what it means to have a disability. This week, we are really going to put children and young people with special needs on the agenda. We make knowledge more accessible and share tips on how we can all create a more inclusive society. When it comes down to it: children and young people with disabilities are the valuable to our society. And everyone has something to contribute!

New initiative 2021! Children’s jury at the Abloom Film festival- norm-breaking representation

We are presenting what is likely the world’s first and only children’s jury, composed of diverse members.

Namely, a children’s jury consisting of children with disabilities. The children will choose a movie and give it an award.

Founder and CEO, Faridah Nabaggala, won the “Oslo’s Artist Award in 2014 – for outstanding efforts in Oslo’s cultural life” and the NHF Oslo Honorary Award for 2016. Nabaggala is an important player in the fight for the disability movement in Norway, and central to the work for the conditions and needs of minority language disabled people. Read more about Faridah here.

The word Abloom means “in full bloom”, which is meant to reflect what the organization and festival stand for. We want children and young people with special needs to be valued, seen and heard, and we want them to be able to strike out in full bloom.