Uganda has progressive legislation in place to support the rights of people with disabilities, and has received donor support for special education and community-based rehabilitation programs over the years. Yet while political mobilization and interventions aiming to minimize disabling conditions have been important, they are not necessarily seen as a means to achieving rights and self-sufficiency. Using examples of families I have known for decades, I show how disability interventions and institutions affect their lives in the long run. James Ferguson’s approach to relations of dependence is useful in understanding how people in eastern Uganda perceive possibilities in disability projects. Humanitarian and development projects sometimes feed into life projects such as education, housing, livelihood, and making families. But their impact is often not so great in the long run of lifetimes intertwined with lives of intimate others.
