UWEZO

What do they do?

UWEZO, which means ability in Swahili, was founded in 2010 by Bahati Satir Omar, who identified the need for a youth-led disability organisation working at a national level in Rwanda. UWEZO works to enable children and young people with disabilities to regain their self-confidence through the development of skills and actively participate in society by improving social integration.

They advocate and raise awareness of equal rights and opportunities for children and young people with disabilities within Rwanda, focussing on training, peer support and mentoring, internship programmes, education and advocacy.

Our work together

UWEZO became partners with Able Child in October 2016. Inspired by their passion and vision, our first project together involved successfully piloting a mentoring model where young people with disabilities mentored children with disabilities in an attempt to tackle poor educational outcomes for children in Rwanda. Following the success of that programme, we have gone on to secure new multi-year grants to upscale this work as their success has gained recognition in the international arena.

During this time, UWEZO has gone from a relatively small team into an organisation delivering multiple, multi-year grants, becoming a leader-in-their-field in empowering children and young people with disabilities. Through this rapid growth, we have been supporting UWEZO with their organisational development and capacity building alongside the projects we deliver together. This has been essential to manage its growth and ensure that the organisation is capable of delivering its activities.

Through our partnership with Able Child, we have been able to build national networks of advocates; young people with disabilities empowered to campaign for the rights of themselves and the next generation of children.

– Bahati Omar, Director at UWEZO