#OrangeTheWorld: Ending violence against women and girls with disabilities in Uganda.
“Movement building is about a group of people working together for a common goal.”
Established in 2000 in Uganda, the Integrated Disabled Women Activities (IDIWA) is a non-governmental organization that works to empower women and girls living with disabilities as well as other vulnerable groups to maximize their potential and improve their standard of living using a human rights approach. Through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), IDIWA has received a EU/UN Spotlight Initiative* grant to support the implementation of its project aimed at eliminating sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities who face multiple forms of discrimination.
We spoke with Elizabeth Kayanga, Executive Director of IDIWA.
How does the UN Trust Fund grant support your organization?
The grant supports IDIWA’s long-term vision of change, which is to protect and empower women and girls with disabilities. We equip them with human rights and advocacy skills to enable them to engage with duty bearers, including police, local government officials and health workers, and to demand disability-friendly sexual and gender-based violence services.
We also train them as peer educators and paralegals to act as focal points for other women and girls with disabilities; and support them with access to legal, psychosocial, economic and health services.
In addition, the grant helps our project to promote the human rights and dignity of women and girls with disabilities who are survivors of gender-based violence, by enabling them to earn money and provide for their own needs. We do this by offering training in agriculture, entrepreneurship and business management skills, as well as by providing them with materials to establish household income-generating activities and small businesses.
How are you addressing multiple and intersecting forms of violence that women and girls living with disabilities often face, and how has it changed due to COVID-19?
Our project aims to strengthen mechanisms for protection and response to sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities, particularly through collective action.
To this end, we have supported the formation of four forums for in and out-of-school girls, and educated them on gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. We also run a monthly community radio programme, in which girls and women with disabilities participate. These initiatives are empowering women and girls with disabilities to claim their right to HIV/AIDS services, and are expanding our reach to other districts.
Our project is also sensitizing parents and community members about the negative effects of leaving some groups of people out of development processes and services, and is training peer educators to identify and refer women and girls with disabilities to sexual and reproductive health services.
In the context of COVID-19, the lack of transport meant IDIWA was unable to be in the field to address the ever-increasing number of cases of violence against women with disabilities. Also, programme and administration costs increased because of remote working and needing to provide personal protective equipment and additional sanitation. We are now facing a heavy backlog of work stemming from the first lockdown in 2020.
What is movement building from your perspective?
Movement building is about a group of people working together for a common goal. A social movement requires collective power, beyond a small group organizing, to build and sustain long-term change.
Movement building can involve several steps, including understanding who should take what action, rallying our staff and supporters, and setting up or improving communication systems.
How does your project contribute to building feminist movements? What can donors do to better support movement building?
We have mobilized six groups of girls and women with disabilities, and are training them on gender, human rights, and sexual and gender-based violence. We organize monthly meetings where girls and young women with disabilities meet with mentors and trainers to discuss a wide range of issues, creating a safe space, to learn, share and network.
Donors need to strengthen women’s capacity to demand rights and services, especially at the local level. They also need to create space for women’s rights organizations, especially those working with women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.
Donors should consider long-term partnerships with women’s rights organizations and support them for 5 to 10 years to contribute to lasting and transformative change for women and girls. They could also invest in strengthening the ability of women’s rights organizations to effectively document and share their results, lessons and best practices.
This interview is part of a series to highlight the UN Trust Fund grantees under the Spotlight Initiative and how these women-led and women’s rights organizations are building and nurturing the feminist movements.
*The EU/UN Spotlight Initiative was launched in 2017 to eradicate violence against women and girls, including by funding civil society organizations through the UN Trust Fund.
