by Chris Agbo
On Tuesday 5th November, 2019, Disability Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) organized a one-day project launch/inception workshop of the Project “Making it work”. A project supported by Oxfam Voice, it is geared towards improving Access to SRHR for Women and Girls with Disabilities (WGWDs) in the FCT.
Executive Director, DRAC Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu in her opening remarks said that the project “making it work” is an opportunity for DRAC to continue to advance the rights of persons with disabilities especially WGWDs. The project is aimed at initiating actions to bring the National Policy to life and make it work for WGWDs using the FCT as a pilot project.
Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) is an essential component of health and a pillar for sustainable development, however, the SRH needs of PWDs especially women and girls with disabilities who have been neglected due to discrimination, negative attitude of service providers and widespread negative stereotypes are often neglected and go unaddressed.
The Director GASHE, Dr. Christopher Ugboko of Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) representing the Honorable Minister of Health in his speech commended DRAC for representing the interests of persons with disabilities (PWDs) because not too many organizations are working for PWDs in Nigeria and that is why FMOH identifies with DRAC and all their efforts in working for PWDs. FMOH have collaborated with DRAC to develop a National policy for Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for PWDs especially for WGWDs. The policy has also received the approval of National Council on Health and it is significant because it is now national acclaimed policy on health, everybody now knows that there is a policy designed specifically to address the sexual reproductive Health of WGWDs. There is also the 5-year costed strategic framework of implementation of the policy and in the next few weeks, the framework will be finalized. He called on organizations to show more interest on the issues of disability especially WGWDs because 60% of the 25 million Nigerians with disabilities are WGWDs.
Ngozi Nwosu-Juba, Executive Director, VisionSprings Initiative in a keynote address appreciated DRAC for taking steps to ensure the implementation of the landmark policy. She said that she has been working with young women in the issue of sex but she has not been thinking about WGWDs. Women and girls with disabilities have little or no opportunity to negotiate sex, the public don’t consider WGWDs when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. Persons with disabilities are humans, they have feelings and their sexual life should be taken seriously. She called on other organizations to partner with DRAC in SRHR of WGWDs.
Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu gave an overview of the “Making it Work” project, where she narrated some of the challenges, barriers and stigma that women and girls with disabilities are faced with in accessing health facilities. According to her, health providers most times assumes that women with disabilities should not indulge in any sexual activities and even the public have a mindset that persons with disabilities have nothing to do with sex. She gave a scenario of what happened in her church where sexual reproductive health promotional materials were being distributed and she was skipped, she had to call for it and the usher was defensive apologizing and saying it was not deliberate, but she knew it was deliberate because of the societal notion that a woman in wheelchair cannot or should not be having sex. It was some of these challenges that necessitated DRAC’s interest in addressing the SRHR of WGWDs, approached FMOH and after a lot of ups and downs, was able to achieve a National Policy on SRHR for PWDs with emphasis on WGWDs, she further highlighted the fact that it was the Honorable Minister of Health that insisted on the emphasis on women and girls with disabilities because he understands the peculiarities of WGWDs. In order to support the implementation, DRAC approached VOICE Nigeria who supported the project.
She went further to explain some of the activities to be expected in carrying out the project and the expected outcomes of the project. Most importantly, she said that DRAC believes in collective action and is open to collaborations and networking in carrying out this project to get the desired outcome.
There were goodwill messages from some notable participants at the event such as Lawrence Idemudia from Centre Deaf Inclusion, Theophilus Odaudu from Disability Rights Fund, Beatrice Mube representing JONAPWD FCT, Nike Akinola from Network for Women with disabilities.
Ola Adepoluji of VOICE Nigeria representing the Project Coordinator, Ijeoma Okwor, in his speech said that VOICE is a grant-making facility from the initiative of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Netherlands to help amplify the voices of the voiceless. He said that DRAC’s project proposal spoke to the core values of what VOICE wants to achieve and that prompted them to approve the proposal without hesitation. He urged the women with disabilities to take advantage of the opportunity that the project provides.
The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the “Making it Work” project banners by the representative of the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Ugboko with the support of other stakeholders at the event, after the cutting of the project cake.
The event ended with the establishment of Project implementation Hub which was an opportunity for participants to register their areas of interest in the implementation of the “Making it Work” project whereby DRAC can collaborate with them.
The events witnessed the presence of professionals from the health sector, Organizations of Persons with disabilities (OPDs), media practitioners, CSOs and development partners.
It is a worthy project and we at The Qualitative Magazine, we wish DRAC well and wish to work with DRAC and call on all relevant stakeholders to queue behind DRAC to see to the success of this project. We are not in doubt of DRAC’s passion and capacity, we will contribute our own quota to give all activities around this project the desired coverage.
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