#EndViolence #BeInclusive

 

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is marked on the 3^rd of December. And we also have the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) which is marked from 23^rd November to 10^th December every year. The overlap of these very significant campaigns is also what I want to focus on today.

Globally, 18 per cent of the female population has a disability (WHO), and many of these women are at higher risk of GBV than those without disabilities owing to the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination they face. The intersection of disability with factors such as sex, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, and economic situation also affects the experiences and services on GBV.

But I am not here to discuss numbers and global strategies and policies and what the UNCRPD says or not. I want to discuss how I have seen the impact on young girls and women with disabilities who experience violence and hopefully trigger conversation around what we can do to prevent and respond to it.

I think one of my early exposure and understanding of this issue was prompted by an interaction I had with a young person with disability who recounted to me an incident about how at a public place she had to get to, there were no ramps or lifts and so the only solution was for her to be carried with her wheelchair for which she had to depend on some random strangers. And then to prevent her from falling while they precariously lifted her, some of these strangers held her arms and legs and parts of her body. She said she felt violated to be touched all over by strangers, at their pity and to have to endure this to access a public space that was her right to access. She spoke that while this may not count as some horrific case of gender based violence, it was to her a violent experience after which it took her again months to want to step out again. And this is a young person with privilege to have a wheelchair and access to counselling that helped her overcome her trauma from this incident.

But imagine all those that don’t and we have already seen how they are more vulnerable to all forms of violence. Unfortunately most organisations working on issues around GBV have not integrated the disability lens in their work. For example, do one stop crisis centres have sign language experts or special educators that can help communicate with girls with various forms of disabilities. A lot of material for awareness is not really accessible to the visually impaired. Even websites providing information are not accessible to many, something that I was faced with when while recruiting a visually impaired colleague, she gave me this feedback. Technology has really moved ahead and assistive support is available but we need to incorporate these in our design and strategies in a conscious way.

As per the Press Information Bureau, over 700 one stop centres are functional across India. However do we know if they have had a disability lens audit? Can we really ensure that these centres can cater to women and girls with various kinds of disabilities? This is another quick win and could go a long way in making our GBV services inclusive and accessible to all.

Moreover all training of social workers, medical practitioners, counsellors, justice workers need to be integrated with knowledge and skills on working with clients with disabilities. Recently UNICEF has launched a competency framework for the social workforce ensuring it is disability inclusive. The more and more this is adopted and then social workers are provided with these skills, the integration of services will be possible. A critical part ofcourse of these trainings need to also be the empathy and altitudinal changes. Only this can ensure that services are not just available but provided with dignity.

Which brings me to the last part, with need for working on an enabling environment through awareness and education on disability inclusion to aim towards zero discrimination for persons with disabilities and especially to shine a light on the vulnerability to GBV of this segment. This will go a long way in prevention as well as mitigation of risks and response. Leaving you with some images from a social media campaign I am very proud of which very seamlessly included disability in the communication.

 

This post is a part of “International Day of Disabled Persons” blog hop hosted by Sakshi Varma – Tripleamommy. #IDPD2023Bloghop. Access all posts of this bloghop at https://tripleamommy.com/2023/11/30/championing-diversity-uniting-voices-commemorating-idpd-together/. Please also visit www.tripleamommy.com

Boots on the ground- finally!

 

Hargesia is the capital of Somaliland, which has claimed its own independence, though not yet internationally recognized as a country on its own. It is relatively peaceful compared to the rest of Somalia though in recent times some of their areas to the east have seen some conflict over some contested territories. I took the commercial flight to Hargesia from Mogadishu. Turns out the domestic airport is even more chaotic than the international one and while initially deciding to brave it myself, I ended up calling up my Man Friday – Shinoo the porter very soon, eating humble pie yet again about my ability to negotiate chaos.

 

The arrival at Hargesia was uneventful except for the part where they stamped my passport with their own visa and collected a fee for it! One must give it up for self determination confidence of Somaliland! I mean now I have a visa stamp of a country that basically does not exist! The hotel I realized is basically a hostpost of expats in Somaliland and it was nice to be in a big room with large windows after being cooped up in the Mog prison. I spent the first day on online calls near the window for as long as I could.

The next few days were spent in a whirlwind of programme visits, meetings and partner discussions and basically being able to move around without security escorts, stop and have coffee at cafes, eat out at restaurants, even walk around freely during the day! This was so different from Mog that I really enjoyed myself learning about the work there. While a lot were meetings with Government there, there was one visit to a safehouse for survivors of Gender based violence and an interaction with young people part of our upskilling programme, that truly left a mark on the dedication and efforts of our partners to make a difference in this very challenging context.

The highlight perhaps for me was a visit to the old city and main market where my colleagues took me and honestly it felt so nice to be able to have this immersive experience. Hargesia is famous for its gold market and I decided to pay a visit there as well. It was super interesting to see how gold was being sold by the street side like fruits or vegetables! I got myself a tiny something as a good luck omen which the locals believe buying gold is.

And just like that it was time to head back. My return was on the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flight. Little did I realise when I boarded the tiny aircraft at Hargesia, what an adventure this will be. Our first refuelling stop was in a small town by the Red Sea and the airport is literally by the red sea- it was stunning and I ran to take some pictures before boarding back again. The next phase of the journey to Puntland capital of Garowe saw some turbulence and trust you me that little plane did not feel safe! Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when we finally touched ground. Here we had to change aircrafts and by now I was dehydrated and hungry and really tired. However the flight had another stop before it finally reached Mog. A real hop on hop off, air tour of Somalia! Next time, I am flying commercial for sure.

Pictures below : 1) the UNHAS flight experience 2) the red sea stop over 2) meeting with some young people from our social entrepreneurship work, in Somaliland the abaya and head scarf is a must 4) In a meeting with Minister of Justice of Somaliland (yep they are serious about this country thing)  5) the Hargesia gold market