By Chris Agbo

As part of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD)’s quest to involve the younger generations of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the fight against corruption earlier, CCD in carrying out the #UpRight4Nigeria Campaign went to special schools in Akwa-Ibom state.

In order to mitigate the negative effects of corruption on PWDs, the Disability Community needs all the hands to be on the desk. It is a clear fact that to build a good, enduring and sustainable legacy; you don’t channel all your energies on the waning stars (Older generation) alone. The waxing stars (Younger generation) too needed to be carried actively along and engaged effectively; to foster continuity.

That’s led Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) to set up #UpRight4Nigeria School Club in Special Schools in Enugu and Akwa-Ibom states in 2019. Some students with disabilities were branded as #UpRight4Nigeria Ambassadors in the Special Schools selected. The aims of setting up the School Club were to create awareness on the need to mitigate the adverse effects of corruption in the society and to strengthen the resistance of the students (PWDs) against the prevalence of corruption in the state and in the country at large.
CCD is paying a follow-up visit on the selected schools to ascertain the impact of the campaign and also to extend the #UpRight4Nigeria Campaign to other Special Schools in the state. CCD put together a 2-Day Follow Up with the #UpRight4Nigeria Ambassadors with the following
objectives:

• To monitor the progress level of the #UpRight4Nigeria Ambassadors,
• Continue building the capacity of the #UpRight4Nigeria Ambassadors, and the School admin on the provisions in the Nigeria Disability Act; and
• To extend the #UpRight4Nigeria Campaign to other special schools selected in Akwa-Ibom state.

The 2-Day Follow Up program is supported by ActionAid Nigeria Nigeria through the UkAid funded project through Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against the Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C).

UpRight4Nigeria #DisabilityActNGR #InclusiveSociety

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By Chris Agbo

Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in their SCRAP-C project that Capacity Building for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on the use of Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and the Nigeria Disability Act is part of, continues its program in Kaduna state with a 3-Day Capacity Building program to build the capacity of PWDs. The training which started on Wednesday 11th March 2020 will be concluded on Friday 13th March 2020.

The program is aimed to equip persons with disabilities with the right skills and knowledge necessary to demand accountability and ensure transparency at all levels of governance in Nigeria. Also, to participate actively in governance.
The program is supported by ActionAid Nigeria through UKAid funded project on the Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against the Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C)

International women’s day is a day set aside by United Nations to celebrate women of all kinds across the globe.

The occasion which usually appreciates the determination, resilience and multi-tasking nature of women across board, also seeks to create awareness on the need for women to be given chances and opportunities to contribute equally with their male counterparts.

This year’s Theme #EachforEqual which directly emphasizes that an equal world is an enabled world. It captured the concerns for Nigerian women and most specific women with disabilities. Women with disabilities are women with great potentials, with equal satisfaction, with equal leadership qualities and above all with capacity to raise homes if given the due chances and equal playing field.

Centre for citizens with disabilities (CCD) wishes to use this opportunity to reaffirm its position for a better society for women most importantly women with disabilities, whom the society has long neglected and give no attention. This is because gender equality is essential for economy and communities to thrive.

The Executive Director CCD, David Anyaele in a press release sent to The Qualitative Magazine on Sunday, called on Nigerians; Women led movement and government in particular to recognize women with disabilities as stakeholders and to be given needed attention in the areas of employment, empowerment, gender based violence, and sexual reproductive health right to equally maximize their potentials.

The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is the premier organization of, and for persons with disabilities that works to promote disability rights, independent living, inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in development agenda. CCD coordinated CSOs campaign for the passage of the National Disability Bill, now an Act.

PRECIOUS CARES FOR ALL FOUNDATION in order to enhance the economic growth and benefits of persons with disabilities and others engaging in small businesses is collaborating with YOUTH DEPARTMENT, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SECRETARIAT, FEDERAL TERRITORY ADMINISTRATION (FCTA) to organize a Trade Fair titled “WE ARE ALL VOCATIONALLY ABLE”. The trade fair will create opportunity for persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities who are into craft making or business to showcase his/ her products with little or no fee.

Aderayo Adefowora the organizer of the event while speaking to The Qualitative Magazine (the media sponsor of the event) said that the foundation has a burning desire to create business adventures for persons with disabilities alongside other business persons. That’s why it is titled “WE ARE ALL VOCATIONALLY ABLE”. She said that trade fair supported by FCT SPORTS DEPARTMENT, FCTA is coming up on 2nd -4th April, 2020 by 9am-6pm daily at Old Parade Ground.

Speaking further, she said that the NGO will be giving 5 free slots to deaf community, free slots to Kurudu IDP camp. The NGO will also give two free slots to the first two persons with disabilities that will come and register.

Interestingly, any persons with disabilities who come to trade at the Trade Fair will be given 10% discount. 20% discount has been declared for individuals who are paying for stand from now till March 30, 2020. This gesture has so far kept by the foundation.  If you are paying as a team, you will get a free 1room tenth space for every 5 room tenth paid for.

20,000 naira for a one room canopy space and 10,000 naira for a half canopy space.

You can pay into the NGO’s account: Account name : PRECIOUS CARES FOR ALL FOUNDATION, Account number: 0806627179, Access Bank.

Note that those paying directly to the NGO’s account. You have to bring your evidence of payment and it must tally with the information on our statement for us to give you a stand.

Booking has started, it is first come, first served

For more enquiries, Call or WhatsApp Precious Cares for All Foundation (08054473952).

You will not regret being part of this event either as one securing a stand to sell or the one coming to buy at the event. It will be a win win situation for all between 2^ND -4^TH April, 2020.

by Chris Agbo

Disability Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) as part of her “Making it Work” Project organized a three-day training on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Persons with Disabilities for organizations of persons with disabilities in the FCT.

DRAC put together this training for the disability community on SRHR to enable persons with disabilities understand their sexual health, reproductive health, their SRH rights and available SRH services.

The Associate Director of DRAC, Ms. Nike Akinbola in her opening speech urged participants to give their maximum attention to the training because of its usefulness. She reminded them that DRAC has been committed to improving sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls with disabilities because it is a known fact that WGWD have often been left to their fate and they do not have equal opportunities to access SRH services like their counterparts without disability. This lack of access to SRH services is as result of physical, communication and attitudinal barriers experienced by WGWD in healthcare facilities. The National Policy on SRHR of PWDs with emphasis on WGWDs which DRAC initiated and developed in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, civil society organizations and other stakeholders in 2015 is designed to address these barriers that hinder access to SRH services by WGWDs.

The experienced facilitators took the participants through the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) provisions that support the SRHR WGWDs, highlighting articles 9, article 16, article 23 and article 25, the National Policy on SRHR of PWDs with emphasis on WGWDs. Other topics include: Sexuality, Gender Norms and other SRH issues like Anatomy, Menstruation and Hygiene, HIV and other STIs prevention, Treatment and care. Personal values and how they affect the sexual rights of persons with disabilities was also examined.

The training also witnessed interactive group activities where the participants were grouped in different days to discuss various issues and concepts.

One of the major highlights of the training was the demonstration of the use of male and female condoms using penile and vaginal models, as most of the participants had never seen or used a female condom before.

The participants were satisfied with the training going by their feedback and DRAC was urged to extend the training to more people within the community.

The Executive Director DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu in her closing remarks urged the participants to step down the knowledge to their different clusters and made a call for clusters to begin to put forward their younger ones because there is an urgent need to start early to strengthen the capacity of the younger ones to be able to participate and lead the advocacy for the actualization of their sexual and reproductive rights.

DRAC’s Making it Work project which is funded by Oxfam Voice Program is designed to promote and jumpstart implementation of the National Policy on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights of Persons with disabilities with emphasis on women and girls with disabilities (WGWDs) in order to improve their access to SRH services.

The participants were majorly representatives of the various disability clusters: the Blind, the Deaf, the persons with physical disability and persons with albinism.

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March 8 annually, is a day to celebrate what women have achieved throughout recent years. However, it’s also a day for us to raise awareness about women and girls with disabilities in Nigeria.

This year, DRAC is proud to launch the Burgundy Ball – Social Justice Awards (BBSJA), an event aimed at recognizing and honoring the struggles and achievements of women with disabilities in Nigeria.

Women with disabilities who have excelled in sports, activism, leadership, academics, enterpreneurship etc will be honoured with this first and the only award designed to recognize and honour women with disabilities.

DRAC as an organization at forefront of advocating for the rights of women with disabilities and persons with disabilities in general, designed this award to encourage excellence among women with disabilities in order to motivate and encourage other women with disabilities to stand up and live beyond their disability. Women with disabilities suffer more stigmatization and discrimination and all efforts should be channeled towards their empowerment but most importantly, women with disabilities should discover their potentials and enhance them.

The Social Justice Awards is supported by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the British Council in Nigeria.

#BurgundyBall #SocialJustice #EachWWDIsEqual #GenerationEquality

By Chris Agbo

Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on 28th February in Abuja put together a Project launch/Inception meeting of a new project known as Project Policy to Practice (P2P) – Improving Access to Justice for Women and Girls with Disabilities. The project which is supported by Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme is funded by European Union and implemented by British Council.
The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu speaking at the event said that the new project is based on the need to improve access to justice for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) especially women and girls with disabilities. It is necessitated from a research conducted by DRAC in 2017-2018, where persons with disabilities human rights are violated and they are unable to access justice because the facilities where they can access justice are not accessible or disability friendly. There is no physical access, environmental access, the wrong attitude of the service providers, and absence of protective policies. Women and Girls with disabilities suffer extreme forms of violence and they are unable to access justice which is as a result of negative comments, and attitudes which they usually get when they make effort to report cases of violence against them. Even in the case of rape, they have had a lot of humiliating experiences.
Speaking further, she said that this inception meeting was to help all stakeholders understand their roles towards ensuring access to justice. She highlighted the fact that protective laws such as VAPPA Act, Child Rights act and the Disability Act can be used to access justice for persons with disabilities but they are not being implemented using a disability lens, thus resulting in the barriers PWDs face. Therefore, P2P will work to bring these laws to life and ensure that they move from being just policies to becoming the standard practice. P2P will also look at the range of justice services and support the service providers to improve on their services to accommodate PWDs.
The Component Lead (Civil Society and Media component of ROLAC), Oluwatoyosi Giwa during her good will message said that one cardinal focus of ROLAC apart from their support for Anti-corruption drive of the government is access to justice for the most disadvantaged groups in the society particularly women, children and PWDs. She said that ROLAC looks at existing legislation for these groups, identifies what can be done to support government at all levels to implement these protective legislations and promote the specific roles of different groups and individuals to ensure that PWDs have access to justice. She urged stakeholders present not to look at the government as the only service provider or the only problem, we should contribute our own bit towards ensuring that access to justice for PWDs especially WGWDs is achieved.
Emmanuel Adedeji, the representative of Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) in a goodwill message commended DRAC and ROLAC for the initiative while he blamed the problem on the failure of Nigerians to engage laws that are meant to serve and protect them, instead they continue to suffer what the law sought to prevent. He assured DRAC of the NBA’s support and willingness to be a part of any initiative that seeks to enhance access to justice for PWDs.
Mr. Ujah Abdulmununi, FCT chairman of Joint National Association of Persons with disabilities (JONAPWD) commended DRAC, said that the project is coming at the right time because lack of access to justice for PWDs is posing a lot of challenge for PWDs. He urged all stakeholder to rally around PWDs to ensure that the set goals and objectives of the project is achieved.
The Executive Director, Women Africa, Mrs. Chinwe Onyeukwu in her goodwill message described access to justice of PWDs as a critical challenge facing persons with disabilities especially women and girls with disabilities because findings have shown that women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable to violence. In most cases, they don’t get the services they deserve due to the attitude of the service providers. She urges all stakeholders to contribute towards ensuring that by the end of the project, a reasonable progress on the access to justice of PWDs must have been made.
Deputy Director, National Human Rights Commission Aisha Katungo in her goodwill message said that access for justice is one of the cardinal principles of rule of law, if you cannot access justice, you cannot express your feeling and you cannot challenge the decision makers and hold them accountable for their actions / inactions. She expressed the commission’s willingness to partner with DRAC on this project because it has to do with the promotion of rights of PWDs with special focus on women and girls with disabilities.
Dr. Irene presented the overview of P2P, she gave the background of the project, the scope, goals and objectives, project components and expected outcomes.
The event witnessed the official launch of Project Policy to Practice (P2P) when the special banner was unveiled by Toyosi Giwa of ROLAC and the project inception cake was cut by the Executive Director of DRAC, ROLAC representative and other stakeholders at the event.
The event had in attendance, traditional leaders from the six-area council, leaders of the disability community, CSOs, Government officials, Professional organizations like NBA and Religious leaders.

Prof. Florence Banku-Obi, Prof. of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Education, University of Calabar, has called on the National Assembly to pass the bill on disability education for the country.

Banku-Obi made the call in Calabar while delivering the 92nd Inaugural Lecture at the University’s International Conference Centre titled “From Exclusion to Zero Rejects: A Road Map to Inclusiveness”.

She explained that the bill would guarantee full integration and enhance the quality of inclusive education for persons with disabilities.

According to her, she undertook a study and found that many heads of schools were not ready to welcome special children except it became mandatory for them to do so.

Banku-Obi, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics in the University of Calabar, said that some teachers do not know how to adapt instructions to suit special children especially those with sensory impairments (blind and deaf).

She urged government at all levels to make more public schools inclusive to open up more access to quality education for special children.

The Senior Lecturer said that the physical facilities in such special schools should be restructured to accommodate the people with disability.

She, however, called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the Supervisory bodies to monitor the implementation of the element of special education designed by the National Educational Research and Development Council.

“The world over, children with disabilities live a life of marginalisation, labelling, discrimination, stigmatisation and exclusion. They are seen and treated as unfit and the dregs of the society.

“Excluding children with disabilities from education means that they have a near bleak future with very restrictive prospects for economic independence thereby promoting a cycle of inter-generational poverty among millions of these children.

“Inclusive education is an educational ideology where all learners with or without disabilities are welcome to general education neighbourhood schools.

“The learners in inclusive education are given the opportunity to school and learn together in general education classrooms with their peer groups or age mates,” she said.

Banku-Obi maintained that inclusive education encourages necessary institutional policies to support the disadvantaged, especially those with disabilities to ensure that the “no one is left behind” policy of vision 2030 is achieved.

She explained that Zero Reject requires that an individual with a disability so identified and recognised by law cannot be denied access to appropriate education and related necessary services to help in the learning process.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of Unical, Prof. Zana Akpagu, who declared the inaugural lecture open, said the lecture would shape the thought of individuals on how they see and treat the challenged people.

The lecture attracted academics from various fields, students, captains of industries, lawmakers and religious leaders among others.

Source: PM News

Over 1,000 beggars on Tuesday blocked the entrance of the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Governor’s Office to protest undue harassment and arrest by officials of the state government.

The beggars, who came in over 10 buses and seven tricycles barricaded the entrance to the Assembly and demanded that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu addressed them, saying that they would sleep on the road if the governor did not come out.

Despite plea by government officials telling them that the governor was not around, they refused to bend and vowed to remain there until they were seen by the governor.

The protesters were armed with placards, some of which read: “Enough is enough, stop the persecution of people with disabilities,” “Save the waterfront, enforced conviction, we demand justice,”If you don’t want to see us begging on the streets, give us skills and empowerment,” “Seeing beggars all over our streets and roads is the failure of the system” and “We are tired of running without legs or eyes, give us skills and empowerment.”

The beggars were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ intermittently and dared the police to harass them.

Spokesperson of the beggars and Coordinator, Physically Challenged Empowerment Initiatives, PCEI, Mohammed Zanna, said in 2017, they protested in Alausa and refused to leave, but that many of them were arrested and taken to Majidun, which he described as a prison where they were ill-treated and manhandled by government officials.

He said without making provision, government would make laws to arrest the beggars and dumped them at Majidun, as some of them had died in the hospital and in detention.

According to him, some of the beggars had been able to purchase tricycles to do their businesses, but that now that the government had banned them, their situation had been made difficult, saying that people were now trekking from bus stops to their destinations and that some of the physically challenged among them did not have means of transportation.

He added that on 7th February, 2020, his organisation came with 500 beggars for a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the governor to the desperate situation facing members and persons living with disabilities across Lagos State whose livelihoods had been decimated and whose mobility seriously undermined by the shocking ban on tricycle riders.

“We cannot enter buses now because we cannot fight and struggle. We are seeking audience with the governor. Let them come and tell us what they want to do with us. We need skills and empowerment. We are tired of sitting at home. We are demanding to be skilled,” Zanna said.

“We do not want to beg on the streets. We have used our own ingenuity and resources to provide alternative livelihoods for ourselves that are more dignified, safer and productive to society. Yet, in the blink of an eye, this government is willing to destroy all we have built for ourselves and push us back into poverty and life without basic human dignity.

“We are ready to work with government to find workable alternatives through appropriate regulation of keke, special permits for People Living With Disabilities to use our keke for transportation of our members or real and immediate support for alternative livelihoods through skills training and support for PLWDs to start new businesses,” he said.

Source: PMNews