Skip to main content
Faaolo Utumapu-Utailesolo stands in front of flowers with a contemplative look on her face.
Photo credit: Sophia Paffenroth

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

An accessible pathway outside of a health center.

Inclusive Care

For decades, Rwandans with disabilities faced significant challenges to accessing health care. Now the country has embarked on an ambitious plan to renovate all of its outdated facilities, with accessibility as a priority. Thirty health centers have been updated so far, changing stairs into ramps, adding Braille signage and more. “Having access to health services to persons with disability in Rwanda is like dreams that we all wish to be true,” says Aimable Irihose of the Rwanda Organization of Persons with Physical Disabilities and Wheelchair Users.

Read more about Inclusive Care

Ruby stands in front of greenery and looks at the camera.

From Stage to Society

Terubeimoa (Ruby) Nabetari has been using the skills she learned as a composer of music and drama to help her organization, Te Toa Matoa, get their messages across about the rights of persons with disabilities in Kiribati. When she first became disabled from an accident, “I felt sad and confused … because I was well-known as a person who composed music and drama in my country,” she says. “But as time went on, I thanked God that I changed my mind and started to realize what I have to offer people with disabilities.”

Read more about From Stage to Society

Melvina Voua smiles at the camera outside. She is wearing a flower in her hair, and green shrubs are behind her.

‘Count Me In, In Any Change You Make’

DJP Fellow Melvina Voua is advocating for the full inclusion of Solomon Islanders with disabilities in all aspects of climate change adaptation and mitigation. “When the crisis or the disaster happen, we always find it difficult to evacuate or access or even get prepared or respond,” she says. “All … plans must be inclusive and not excluding people with disability, like when designing evacuation centers or developing policies for climate change or disasters.”

Read more about ‘Count Me In, In Any Change You Make’

Ari Hazelman smiles broadly at the camera. He is standing outside with trees behind him.

Pacific Myth As a Catalyst For Disability Justice

DJP Fellow Ari Hazelman is drawing on his region’s rich storytelling history to further the cause of disability rights. “When we think about our myths and legends that we have in our Pacific culture, that’s part of the stories that we grow up with,” he says. “So when you put it to the disability field, using the stories that we can document through the knowledge that we learn in this [DJP] workshop will help us to tell our stories and use those stories to make a positive change in our society.”

Read more about Pacific Myth As a Catalyst For Disability Justice

Isoa Nabainivalu stands outside and looks straight at the camera. A palm tree is behind him. He is wearing a traditional Fijian tunic shirt.

LGBTQI + People with Disabilities Should Not Be Left Behind

DJP Fellow Isoa Nabainivalu is a Deaf disability rights advocate for his country of Fiji. Since 2019, he has been focusing on advocating for the rights of one of the more marginalized groups in the Pacific – LGBTQI+ persons with disabilities. “First and foremost for us is for our members to come out, to feel comfortable, to know their rights and know how to use them in different spaces,” he says.

Read more about LGBTQI + People with Disabilities Should Not Be Left Behind

Faaolo Utumapu-Utailesolo stands in front of flowers with a contemplative look on her face.

A Disability Rights Champion in the Pacific

Faaolo Utumapu-Utailesolo is a program officer for the Pacific Island Countries with the Disability Rights Fund. She is a longtime disability rights activist in Samoa. “As an advocate, you get knocked down by things,” she says, “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.”

Read more about A Disability Rights Champion in the Pacific