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ADD's Acting Chief Executive, Jabulani Ncube,  visited Bangladesh in October 2007 to meet with staff from ADD Bangladesh, ADD Cambodia and ADD India.  Below is an excerpt from Jabu's trip:

Meeting with leaders from the Natore District disabled people's organisations

The meeting was attended by 11 female and 11 male leaders.  One female leader told how she became disabled in the hands of an abusive husband who later divorced her to marry their domestic maid. She said in her testimony “I didn’t get justice, but today I fight for other disabled women”. She became a member of the District Union authority after campaigning for the rights of disabled women.

Meeting with Oitbatpur Protibondhi Self Help Group: a focus on operating methods

Here we met 18 members of the group, including at least four 16-year old students currently studying in local schools.

The group explained how they came together in 1999 in response of the need to challenge the discrimination suffered by disabled people and to achieve their rights as human beings.  Mohammed, a 16 year old, grabbed everyones attention:

"Mohammed spoke with an amazing clarity and confident understanding of the purpose of the group. He was denied admission to a school, which was run by one of the largest NGO's in Bangladesh, on grounds of his physical disability. After a visiting the school with the president of the self help group, he was offered a place. He is now studying year 10."

Clearly discrimination against disabled children by local schools had previously been a big issue in the area as several similar stories were told by other young people. The group was happy that this situation was improving.

The group also recognised the need to penetrate local authorities in order to influence them on problems faced by their members. The result - the President of the self-help group serves on the board of the local high school, another member serves on the committee of the local mosque, the mother of a disabled child serves on the elected position of member of the Union Council (the basic local government unit) and another member is secretary of the Disabled Women and Children Affairs, the umbrella national Federation.

These high profile positions within the local community reflects the dignity that disabled people in the area have begun to enjoy. The group have also seen the results of their advocacy work with representation on local community structures and organisations and admission of disabled children in schools.

Other issues that the group had taken up include several cases of abuse towards disabled women.  One incident involved the group torture of a woman, the local court ordered the offenders to pay compensation and make a public apology.

This group see their strength as being based on common issues that ‘glue’ the group members together. One member spoke of being discouraged from attending group meetings by other people who threw doubts at them about what they thought they would achieve.  The group were also threatened 'that they would be all thrown in the river if they continued to provide the opportunity for someone to collect all of them at once'. The woman replied to her doubter that “if we die together it is better than living in the dark”.