"Raising the Voice" of the African Decade of Disabled Persons
By Michele Morgan (Michele@rehab-international.org)
RI, with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), is working together with the RI member organization in South Africa, the National Council for the Physically Disabled, on a project to help raise the voice of the African Decade through empowerment strategies and public education campaigns to be developed hand-in-hand with some of the most vulnerable and least heard from groups: women and youth with disabilities.
Twenty participants, ten women and ten youth of both genders, all with disabilities, from all over Africa have been selected to work on developing their leadership skills. They were selected through an open competition publicized widely in Africa. Under the guidance of a project officer in South Africa and a project coordinator at the RI Secretariat in New York, they will first work together at the RI African regional conference, taking place in Durban, October 1-3. There they will network, exchange information and experiences, and improve their leadership and communication skills. The goal is to help the participants become better advocates on the local, national and regional level.
In addition, the project will provide information on new developments towards a UN Disability Convention and will link emerging African disability advocates with the international disability community. Participants will participate in sessions and interact with other African disability advocates and leaders during the RI Regional Conference in Durban, South Africa, September 2003.
A workshop with sessions before, during and after the Regional Conference will allow the emerging leaders to focus on issues and skills specific to their needs. Leaders in disability and women's issues have been invited to speak at the workshops.
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