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Project supports and empowers persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe
03 December 2024
For Elsa Ravengai, the intersection of her disability and her gender have rendered her and others invisible.
“Traditionally women with disabilities experience stereotypes,” she said. “They experience stigma and discrimination and marginalization. Women with disabilities, we’re invisible.”
But Ravengai, from the Federation of Organizations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe, said this is changing. For the last six years, the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) project has strengthened disability rights accountability, governance and coordination in Zimbabwe.
Through partnerships with various UN agencies including UN Human Rights, UNPD, along with the Government and local disability NGOs, the project aims to provide better understanding and localization of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It has done this through a variety of schemes including training for persons with disabilities to better advocate for their rights, and advice on ways to improve policies to better benefit persons with disabilities.
Close up of Elsa Ravengai hands as she reads Braille notes. ©Kristy Teichert
One result of the project has been the Zimbabwe Government gazetting a bill to protect against future discrimination against persons with disabilities.
For Ravengai, the training has meant more women with disabilities in particular, being seen and becoming part of decision-making processes.
“I began to see persons with disabilities becoming more assertive and their voices now amplified because of increased awareness of our rights,” she said.
