by Chris Agbo
The Executive Director, FAECARE Foundation Ndifreke Andrew-Essien in a press conference on Wednesday in Port Harcourt on behalf of the coalition team (FAECARE Foundation, Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), Advocacy for Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI) and Haly Hope Foundation) and its partner, the Disability Rights Fund said that the desire for inclusion, access, equality and equity by PWDs in Nigeria is gradually making a head way. It is a known fact that Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in September 2010 with its Optional Protocol, in January of 2019 after years of advocacy, the Nigerian Discrimination against Persons with Disability (Prohibition) Act 2018 was signed into law and relevant to this project we will not fail to mention the National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Persons with Disabilities with emphasis on Women and Girls launched June of 2018. These giant steps have in no doubt projected our county as disability friendly and we commend the Government for the efforts.
Speaking further, she said that despite all these efforts, we are still very far in achieving comprehensive and proper integration in the provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services especially for Women and Girls with Disabilities. It is estimated that among over 25million persons with disabilities in Nigeria, 13 million of them are women and girls with disabilities according to a report from DRAC. One important aspect in the lives of such a huge demography that has continuously suffered relegation is sexual and reproductive health pointing out that our society has failed to understand that PWDs equally have sexual reproductive needs therefore there is a perception that PWDs are unfit for marriage or not capable of parenting. The Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHRs) of PWDs continue to be contested while it remains a threat on the rights to good health and life. She identified that the challenges towards access to SRH services are barriers in accessing healthcare at multiple points of the healthcare process, lack of accessible facilities and equipment, lack of accessible communication facilities, economic barriers, inability to get to health facilities, negative attitude of health workers broadly from barriers and lack of knowledge by the Women with Disabilities (WWD) on what to do or how to access health care services.
She presented experiences of women with disabilities to further deepen the understanding of the access to SHR services. Gloria Asuquo is WWD who has two children. She has put to bed three children but lost one. Her last child is a female and she had her in a private clinic, this was because the child she delivered before her last child died after delivering through caesarian section at the general hospital. Even though she received mostly good treatment at the general hospital, the ordeal of losing the child influenced her decision not to return to the government establishment and informed her decision to deliver her last child at a private clinic.
Christiana Johnson is WWD with children from Ogu/Bolo LGA who has had to have all her children at home because of the distance of the Health center in her community from her.
Chioma Onyema is also WWD who especially had it rough after a caesarian section at a hospital. After delivery the wounds became infected and she experienced a horrible road to recovery which at the end involved self, home and traditional care this is because she was discharged and due to very poor health and a new born, she could not physically strain the return to the health facility, the hospital didn’t bother with home visits.
I was identified from conversation that these women faced several challenges such as attitudinal barriers where healthcare workers would make comments like “even you?” as if it is a taboo for a WWD to be sexually active like every other person or become pregnant and have children. Another challenge was the increase in opting for private hospitals relative to government hospitals, these they blamed on difficult and inaccessible health facility terrain, service dissatisfaction and impossible waiting times. The problem however becomes that many succumb to ill equipped private clinics, and very expensive out of pocket payment for health services. The other challenge in itself as earlier mentioned is the lack of knowledge of WWD of SRH services available to them within the state.
Noting that The National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Persons with Disabilities with emphasis on Women and Girls aims at ensuring that SRH programs reach and serve PWDs, expanding access to WGWD; improving understanding of the issues of the sexual and reproductive needs of WGWD; act as an advocacy tool to stimulate government and community action including resource allocation on the SRH issues of WGWD, government needs to understand the policies, know how to act on them and relevant laws should be implemented. An Inclusive Budget that will facilitate the dictates of the National Policy on Reproductive Health Rights of PWDs is our strongest recommendation. Therefore, in Prioritizing Inclusive Budgeting for the sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria Campaign she recommended the following:
- The Ministries of Health, Finance, Budget and Planning, Women Affairs and Humanitarian services, Disaster Management and Social Development should make deliberate efforts to ensure that Inclusive budgeting is taken into account to provide access to information on SRH care and services to cover for all forms of disability.
- The media should ensure mainstreaming of SRHR of PWDS and increase awareness that violation of the SRH rights is a crime and is punishable under the law.
- The Civil Society must work together to ensure that Inclusive Budgeting for SRHRs is implemented at all levels of governance (National and Sub-National)
- Medical professionals and other key stakeholders in promoting health systems strengthening must ensure that barriers to accessing health care facilities are completely eradicated
- The State Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, the Ministry of women affairs, the Ministry of Health should take on this policy and advocate the adaptation of this policy in Rivers State for implementation
Prioritizing Inclusive Budgeting for the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Persons with Disabilities especially Women and Girls with Disabilities in Nigeria Campaign is an Initiative of four women led Disabled Persons Organizations (DPO)/ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) consisting of the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) (Abuja), FAECARE Foundation (Port Harcourt), Advocacy for Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI) (Abuja) and Haly Hope Foundation (Bauchi). Our goal in this project to facilitate social inclusion, access basic health services and increase awareness about the health status of women and girls with disabilities in Nigeria and this projected is supported by the Disability Rights Fund (DRF).
The Qualitative Magazine learnt that the coalition sees the media as strategic partners in this quest for social inclusion and rely on the media to use their different medium to help escalate this issue until it gets the much needed attention required to effect a responsive change to include PWDs needs in our beloved country Nigeria and the coalition also seek the support of all stakeholders and individuals in getting the government to make budgeting inclusive to accommodate the needs of PWDs for the sustainable growth and development.
