A New Challenge
Of the nearly 400 DeafBlind people living in Malawi, 250 are school-aged children. DJP Fellow Duster Lucius interviews Chrissy Mutumba, the first DeafBlind student accepted to a prestigious high school in Blantyre.
Filmmaker: Duster Lucius
Duster Lucius is a 19-year-old disability youth activist who is DeafBlind (partial hearing, completely blind) and a national youth coordinator at the Visual Hearing Impairment Membership Association (VIHEMA). Read more about Duster Lucius
‘Life Is Possible’
At different points in their lives, Dorothy Natako Mubezi and Irene Isiko faced challenges as Ugandan women with psychosocial disabilities. They both found their own paths forward with the help of their community.
Filmmaker: Esther Suubi
Esther Suubi is an advocate for young girls and women's voices and a peer educator at Triumph Mental Health Support. Read more about Esther Suubi
‘I Swallow Medicine But Run Short on Food’
Ugandans with disabilities who are HIV positive are at greater risk of secondary infections because of a lack of access to nutritious food. Advocates ask the government for more support.
Filmmaker: Nissy Namuyomba
Nissy Namuyomba is an administrative assistant at the Masaka Association of Persons with Disabilities Living with HIV/AIDs and a volunteer with the Masaka Association of Persons with Cerebral Palsy in Uganda. Read more about Nissy Namuyomba
News From the Global Frontlines of Disability Justice
‘I Wish to Live a Normal Life’
Rwandan parents of children with intellectual disabilities often face an agonizing choice: working outside the home or caring for their children. Either option can spiral a family into poverty or keep them there. “I become speechless when it is about discrimination faced by parents who have children with intellectual disability,” says Pacifique Uwizeyimana, mother to 8-year-old Samuel.
‘A View From Somewhere’
DJP staff, partners, and fellows reflect on two years of “taking back the narrative” on disability. “Through the DJP, I was able to advance my advocacy level … for women with disabilities, most especially people with DeafBlindness,” says disability rights activist Oluwabukolami Omolara Badmus, an inaugural DJP fellow from Nigeria.
I Voted
DJP Fellow Benedicta Oyèdayọ̀ Oyèwọlé chronicles the challenges she and other Nigerians with disabilities faced voting in her country’s February elections, from faraway polling places to no assistive materials like magnifying glasses. She urges more inclusion in the House of Assembly and gubernatorial elections on March 18.
More Than A Name
Lidia Lebang, a mental health advocate and author, says she is more than her name: “I am a woman – a gender often seen in Indonesia’s patriarchal society as a second, or inferior, gender. I come from a working-class family. I live with bipolar disorder, which makes me a person with a disability. These are parts of my identity that make me who I am now.”
Toward Equitable Health Care
Rwandans with disabilities face significant barriers to accessing health care. For those with short stature, this includes hospital beds and reception windows that are too high. “Sometimes we are served after others or choose to stay home,” says one advocate for more inclusive services and infrastructure.
‘I Never Imagined I Could Do This’
Dissatisfied by the way local news portrays people with disabilities, DJP Fellow Sri Sukarni is determined to use her new video skills to share issues important to her community. At the top of her agenda is the lack of accessible public service buildings. “This is what I want to convey to the media, to the government,” she says.