International Women's Day

Post
Image
Vilda Atieno

My name is Vilda Atieno I am 22 years, I am a third year student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology undertaking bachelor's in social work I am a lady with physical disability also a youth champion for youth with disabilities.

International Women's Day is important to me because it gives me an opportunity for, empowerment, recognition and we get to appreciate women's effort in the our society for example as a young woman and the future generations, this days by it bringing about recognition, even in our small leadership position it brings a feeling of well representation and thus however little the effort you get to realize that this is important and help build for future voices that would help bring about equality a world free from bias.

There still exist stigma among women, in addition to this being a girl and a woman with disability leads to double stigma and discrimination  politically, sexual and also when it comes to racial identity. many a times in my early stages  of life, I failed to get recognition, appreciation even if it's worth it, being a girl with disability on the other side would expose you to more of gender based violence as no good have been believed could come out of us. From family, those we consider as friends, and strangers have really contributed to sexual harassment among girls with disabilities.

By creating an enabling environment for girls with disabilities to freely express themselves and their issues, it will also be important to having girls with disabilities centered approaches in the implementation of programs and events that are about us, speaking directly to girls and women with disabilities, not at their aide and most importantly, enable us to have the skills to lead and make informed decisions about ourselves and our bodies.

Girls with disabilities can contribute to the climate change first by being trained on climate justice and championing climate change. Speaking about the impact of climate change with peers  will also be of Great impact, being given opportunity to speak about the effects of climate change to all person's in the society thus being champions on the same .

The duty bearers  can provide a platform for girls with disabilities by first, now that we have Covid 19 pandemic, issues around sexual violence among girls with disabilities should be top priority in any humanitarian crisis ,secondly involvement of girls with disabilities in our activities from the start to the end and not only on implementation stage.

Safe space for girls with disabilities to convene and unpack their issues. Many a time we lack free environment to share our issues get to learn from each other, unlearn what is not necessary and feel safe about what we speak and the people we speak to about it, the safe space would also contribute to having more voices of girls with disabilities on board to speak. Secondly, it would be good if we have guidance from the expertise and mentors to help cub the gap that exists among girls with disabilities, we fail as a result of lack of guidance just from childhood  girls with disabilities should be taken care of , when this is well done it will enable us  live a life free from violence discrimination and bias.

Blog