We are working in Rwanda to support children and young people with disabilities to be confident and resilient, so they can stand up for their rights.
When she was younger, Naomi often faced stigma and discrimination due to her disability. She didn’t understand why she was treated differently to other children, and this made her dread going to school. Find out how Naomi found her confidence.
Children and young people account for half of all people with disabilities in Rwanda. Two-thirds of these are not in education or employment and are at much higher risk of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
We are trying to change this.
We have supported 874 parents of children with disabilities to better understand and safeguard their children’s rights.
We improved inclusive access to health, hygiene, and child protection services for 158 girls with disabilities in Musanze.
We set up a network of 104 young people with disabilities who have been advocating for the inclusion of children with disabilities.
We have been supporting our Network Member Uwezo Youth Empowerment (UWEZO) to deliver a youth-led project that makes child protection systems more inclusive, and ensures they are able to directly respond to mental health service gaps for children with disabilities. A key focus is on supporting child protection systems to be more sensitive to the needs of girls with disabilities in particular, who are more at risk of abuse and violence.
The project is working with parents to ensure that they are better supported to prevent abuse through ‘positive parenting’ workshops. UWEZO are training young people with disabilities to mentor the girls, to inform them of their rights and provide mental health and wellbeing support. And together, we are undertaking an extensive mapping of existing child protection services and systems in Rwanda, assessing the existing levels of disability inclusion. This data will be used to promote inclusive child protection systems across Rwanda.
UWEZO (which means ‘Ability’ in Swahili) Youth Empowerment is a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO), established by and for young people with disabilities to take charge of their own lives in Rwanda.
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