Madagascar: Workforce Integration of Women with Disabilities
By Fela Razafinjato (fela.csm@netclub.mg)
[en français]
The mission of the Centre Sembana Mijoro, which I head, is to educate and mobilize people with physical disabilities, in particular women and young girls.
Our general goal is to facilitate the socio-economic integration of disabled people, with three specific objectives:
- to increase the number of disabled children enrolled in schools
- to reduce the number of disabled adults out of work
- to sensitize the general public to the rights of people with disabilities to education and to employment.
During the center's first year in operation - from July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004 - 26 disabled children and young people were able to benefit from the financial, technical, and psychological help which the program offers.
Activities during first year
Overall, the program activities during the first year have yielded the following results:
Assessment of abilities |
26 children and youth in the program, of which
- 10 graduate to the next grade
- 02 repeat the year
- 03 find employment (02 through the center and 01 on her own)
- 02 are engaged in professional training
- 07 follow a remedial course
- 02 are preparing to open their own grocery-restaurant
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Assessment of behaviors |
They accept their disability, and do not consider it an obstacle to their physical, intellectual and moral development. They always try to give the best of themselves. However, one young woman is having difficulty in relating to others because either she is overzealous and bothers others, or she walls herself up in silence and also bothers them. |
According to this table, three disabled persons are presently integrated in the working world where competition and creativity prevail.
It isn't easy to find companies interested in hiring, due to the fact that people consider the disabled as incapable of learning and of working since for them, disability automatically affects the intellectual quotient.
Two pronged approach
What have we done in response ? We have opted for a two-pronged approach, which means we work on preparing both the employers and the future job seekers for each other.
Shortly after the inauguration of the center in July 2003, we started contacting the employers' union to familiarize them with our program first of all, and also to make them a partner in our efforts. We have felt a certain reluctance, but this has not stopped us from continuing our work of questioning and negotiating. As for the employers who feel ready to recruit our disabled young people (very few at the moment), they have expressed a wish to find disabled people who not only have the ability, but also the social skills and the strong motivation to succeed.
We maintain regular contact with these employers in order to listen to their needs in terms of human resources and to orient our disabled young women toward promising career opportunities.
Our approach to the disabled job seekers is to incite them to show off their abilities rather than their disability and to adapt to their environment, in particular the inaccessible public places and infrastructure. It is true that progress in such a context is difficult, but since life must go on, it was necessary to adapt to it, without losing sight of the work of advocacy concerning the enforcement of bill n° 97-044 on the rights of people with disabilities.
Weekly training sessions
In our weekly training session, we also teach our future job seekers how to relate with other people, how to take responsibility for themselves, and the value of intellectual and moral honesty.
To this day, our two-pronged approach has proven successful because everyone wins:
- The employers who recruited our disabled young women report their satisfaction because they work well, respect their colleagues, and arrive on time (3 months have passed).
- The disabled young women are meeting their needs, making new friends, and taking charge of their future.
- The Centre Sembana Mijoro has met one of its goals, to reduce the number of disabled persons out of work.
The center's first year in operation has been a success, owing to the complete dedication of the beneficiaries, the parents, the educators, and the staff to our education philosophy, whereby one cannot live by proxy, and each of us has to take action.
We think that with this continuing success, we will be able to progressively integrate the disabled young women who have joined the center into the working world.
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