Film
Boom or Bust?
Despite the Law, Disabled Ugandans Can’t Access Oil Jobs
The Disability Justice Project partnered with World Institute on Disability to train the inaugural cohort of Global Heumann Fellows in documentary storytelling as part of their year-long research projects. Read more about our partnership and the fellows here.
Uganda’s constitution, disability law, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities all commit the country to inclusive employment, but the oil boom is unfolding in ways that leave disabled jobseekers on the margins. Barriers to education and inaccessible recruitment platforms mean many Ugandans with disabilities never even make it into the talent pipeline. As one Petroleum Authority official acknowledges, “This is a sector that requires highly specialized talents or skills. As you know, people with disabilities, most of them, in our context in Uganda, most of them don’t complete education.”
World Institute on Disability Global Heumann Fellow Kasim Sajjabi’s film looks past the promises to show how an industry on the rise could be far more inclusive of disabled workers.
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Filmmaker: Kasim Rashid Sajjabi
Kasim Sajjabi is a Ugandan disability scholar and advocate with over 25 years in the disability rights and justice field. He has worked with umbrella organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, and the UK, invariably providing technical support to each OPD. Most recently, he supported a Somalia NGO, Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER Somalia), as a technical adviser on a digital innovation hub. Sajjabi holds a master’s degree in community disability studies from the University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. This is complemented by several professional certificates which include a month-long training in disability and health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Programming at the KAYA Connect Humanitarian Leadership Academy.
As a Global Heumann Fellow, Sajjabi is examining the existing disability policies, procedures, and practices related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery in targeted areas. His project, which he will chronicle in a short documentary, aims to bridge the gaps in the current understanding of disability-inclusive emergency response.
