Experts

Inspired by a volunteering trip to Latin America where she dined at a café staffed entirely by Deaf individuals, Dissa founded Fingertalk to connect hearing and Deaf people in her home country of Indonesia and reduce unemployment among the country’s Deaf youth. After learning sign language, Dissa launched a social enterprise, Fingertalk Café, a comfortable space where everyone can connect and share a meal—regardless of how they communicate. Building on the café’s success, Dissa and her team expanded their social enterprise to include a handicraft workshop, a car wash and a bakery each providing meaningful jobs to unemployed Deaf youth.

Through Fingertalk, local business owners are beginning to shift their perspectives on what Deaf individuals can achieve. The venture also works with the youths in post-conflict area of Poso in Indonesia, creating community hub providing employment opportunities for people with disability. In 2019 She was selected as one of the Obama Foundation Leaders in Asia Pacific.

Interested in learning more, Dissa pursued her PhD in human rights, researching about the role of civil society organizations in ensuring the protection and fulfillment of disability rights. She was awarded with a doctorate degree in 2022.

Currently, her work focuses on promoting gender equality and social inclusion values through entrepreneurship support projects in Southeast Asia, leveraging her experience as a social entrepreneur working with vulnerable communities and her passion on diversity and inclusion.