Deaf Women Included (DWI), an organization that seeks to raise the power of women and girls with disabilities has called on for action from various stakeholders to address the needs of People with Disabilities.
Speaking during a sensitization meeting with organizations the offer gender based violence services, DWI executive director Agnes Chindimba called for the inclusion women and girls with disabilities in all circles of life.
“We have come together as organizations so that we share the same platform in mapping the way forward for girls and women with disabilities. There is need to include them in all spheres of life for example they face sexual and gender based violence. A lot is being said verbally but nothing is being achieved on the ground in respect of people with disabilities be it hunger and it is dangerous.
“There is need to provide them with services such as counselling and a lot of rights such that people will understand what’s their rights and privileges. If we do not share information a lot of people with disabilities will not access a lot in terms of inclusion. We wanted to pave way to issue relating you people with disabilities,” said Chindimba.
Deaf Women Included board member, Samantha Sibanda said it is important to converge as service providers as it avoids duplication of duties.
“The meeting was focusing on mainstream organizations who are working to provide gender based violence services sensitizing them on what to look out for and how to make their services accessible to people with disabilities. It is important to mainstream gender based violence service provision and how we can consolidate our efforts as organization to avoid duplication of services, through that we can be able to identify where gaps are and work together to mitigate the challenges that are faced by people with disabilities.” said Sibanda.
