News
A Disability Rights Champion in the Pacific
Faaolo – Mother, Educator and Advocate for Persons with Disabilities in Samoa
June 30, 2023
APIA, Samoa – Bula & Talofa, everyone. I’m Isoa from Fiji Islands, and I work at the Disability Pride Hub. I interviewed Faaolo Utumapu-Utailesolo, the program officer for the Pacific Island Countries with the Disability Rights Fund. She is a blind activist with extensive experience in disability rights, and she is also an educator. She is married and a proud mother to a son. Motherhood is her greatest accomplishment, as it has bought so much joy and pride in raising her son to be part of what she is passionate about.
Question: What work are you really passionate about and in what field specifically?
Answer: The challenge as an advocate is … trying to change the mindset of our community that people with disabilities have rights. It’s our job as a society to make sure that they achieve their rights. I work at the Disability Rights Fund, and we give out grants to organizations to actually advocate for the implementation of the CRPD [UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities].
Question: What is your message to the government and to the families of persons with disabilities?
Answer: To the government, my message is to allocate fairly the budget and resources to persons with disabilities. For families, we need to create more awareness and be open-minded, also to support and understand people with disabilities.
Question: Would you be able to tell me any success stories about your journey in other areas of work as well as in your family?
Answer: I think the success for me is seeing a lot of organizations of persons with disabilities being set up. There were also some implementation works done by organizations of persons with disabilities in the Pacific through advocacy for the implementation of CRPD. My parents supported my education and since there were no resources here in Samoa, they sent me to New Zealand to sit for my university entrance, and I also studied in Australia.
Question: What is your message to the young and aspiring leaders in the OPDs around the region?
Answer: As an advocate, you get knocked down by things and you keep going because you know that there are other people with disabilities who need a lot of support and who will need you to be paving the way.
DJP Fellow Isoa Nabainivalu is an assistant project officer at the Disability Pride Hub (DPH) in Fiji. He has worked as a project officer at the Fiji Association of the Deaf, is an alumnus of the Young Pacific Leaders Fellowship (YPL), was president of the Fiji Disabled Peoples Federation youth committee, and vice chairperson for the Fiji Sign Language Committee. @2023 Disability Pride Hub. All rights reserved.
News From the Global Frontlines of Disability Justice
‘Deaf People Are Finally Seen as Equal Citizens’
After decades of advocacy, Nepal’s Deaf community is gaining access to information in its own language. Interpreted national news broadcasts now air twice daily, and sign language interpretation has recently been introduced in parliament. Advocates say the changes mark a major step toward inclusion, recognition, and equal participation in public life for Deaf Nepalis who have long been excluded from critical information and decision-making.
Read more about ‘Deaf People Are Finally Seen as Equal Citizens’
The Politics of Waiting, Wanting, and Hoping
In Malaysia, disability exclusion is rarely one dramatic denial. More often, writes Beatrice Leong, it is “a series of ordinary delays” — inaccessible schools, symbolic consultations, policies without enforcement, and a system that asks disabled people to wait patiently for dignity and belonging. Blending personal reflection with political analysis, Leong examines what happens when inclusion is promised repeatedly, but justice never fully arrives.
Read more about The Politics of Waiting, Wanting, and Hoping
A ‘Direct Threat’ to Democracy
A Deaf asylum seeker from Mongolia spent five months in U.S. immigration detention without access to a sign language interpreter, leaving him unable to communicate with officers or explain his fear of persecution. His case raises questions about whether disability rights laws are being followed inside ICE facilities, where access to communication can determine the outcome of an asylum claim. Lawyer and advocate Qudsiya Naqui says the “absolute disregard” for disability rights under the Trump administration is a “direct threat” to democracy and rule of law.
‘Everything Has Gone Back’
Before Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, disability advocates were helping shape national policy for the first time in decades. Laws expanded access to education, transportation, and public life. Today, much of that progress has collapsed. A new UN report describes a “hidden crisis,” documenting targeted violence, deadly attacks, and the exclusion of people with disabilities from warnings, aid, and services. As conflict creates new disabilities and organizations are forced underground, advocates work quietly to preserve rights that once seemed within reach.
‘I Just Want to Walk Alone’
Fourteen-year-old Saifi Qudra relies on others to move safely through his day. Like many blind children in Rwanda, he has never had a white cane. His father, Mussah Habineza, escorts him everywhere. “He wants to walk like other children,” Habineza says, “He wants to be free.” Across Rwanda, the absence of white canes limits children’s mobility, confidence, and opportunity. For families, it also shapes daily routines, futures, and the boundaries of independence.
‘Evacuation Routes Are Meant for People Who Can Run’
As climate change and conflict intensify across Pakistan, emergency systems continue to exclude people with disabilities. Warning messages, evacuation routes, and shelters are often inaccessible, leaving many without critical information when floods or violence erupt. “Evacuation routes are built for people who can run,” Deaf author and policy advocate Kashaf Alvi says, “and information is broadcast in ways that a significant population cannot access.”
Read more about ‘Evacuation Routes Are Meant for People Who Can Run’