Yumna, Jamila and Fakihat’s Story.
Young activists Yumna, Jamila, and Fakihat are determined to reshape futures for their community. Together, they’ve set their sights on a crucial yet overlooked challenge: teaching vital digital skills to young people with disabilities.
“There are very few young people with disabilities who are familiar with using digital platforms, yet this is a crucial skill to learn in this era hence the need to implement this project.
“We aim to teach young people with disabilities how to use digital platforms and do digital advocacy. We believe this will create more awareness about disability.“
Their joint initiative will teach crucial digital skills to other disabled young people in Zanzibar, so that they can advocate against disability discrimination online.
A Ripple Effect.
By training people who can go on to train others, Yumna, Jamila, and Fakihat intend to create a ripple effect, and build a strong community of disabled people online, who can advocate for their rights, build their network, and independently access resources, employment and opportunities.
“We shall use the funds to conduct a training on digital literacy and advocacy. The people to be trained are young people from different Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) who will in turn train fellow young people with disabilities.
“The training will entail components like how to use different social media platforms, utilizing platforms like webinars, how to conduct media tours, and so much more.“
Young Leaders.
The group have received funding through a participatory grant from ADD International, meaning that their idea was judged by a panel of their peers, and they ultimately decided how the money would be spent.
By giving us the power to decide what projects to implement and how to implement, it gives us the chance to address the actual problems that persons with disabilities face. This is because we are the ones being affected by these challenges, hence understanding the desired solutions.
The young people have seen first-hand how funding can be absorbed by large international organisations and not reach grassroots activists. They hope to change this.
“It is important that young people with disabilities are given the chance to lead because first and foremost, they are among the minority groups that society has neglected for quite some time. This is because society doesn’t know or understand our needs.
“By putting us in leadership positions, we shall be able to advocate and speak for disability justice. This will ensure that persons with disabilities are included in many sectors of development and decision making.”
Unlocking Real and Lasting Change.
Only by funding and support activists like Yumna, Jamila and Fakihat, and being led by them, can we help bring about real and lasting change for disability justice.
Please support our Christmas appeal to support this work.