Salu was founded in 1997 by 60 persons with disabilities who were eager for independence, job creation and shunning mendicancy. Initially the founding members began to train each other and produce some small home made products by their own financial contribution. This small scale beginning was later accompanied by financial and technical support from different local and international partners working on disability and other social issues. Since its establishment, SALU has been mainly working on economic empowerment of persons with disabilities besides other social and livelihood issues. It has been implementing different disability focused interventions mainly in Addis Ababa, Shashemene in Oromia region and Hawassa in Southern nation’s nationalities people region. More than 1700 PwDs benefited from these initiatives.