The situation and plight facing women and girls with disabilities has become more visible since the interventions of NUWODU in Kitgum. At the district use of census data was predominant, which referred to around 12.5% of people in Kitgum district categorized as people with disability. That data was not disaggregated by types of disability, sex of persons with disabilities and so on. There is a general observation out there that persons with disabilities were being violated. This commenced at the time of the HIV/AIDs pandemic during which people thought that persons with disabilities were free of HIV/AIDs and as a result were sexually violated, notably women with disabilities.
NUWODU has been registering gender-based violence against women and children in terms of failure to provide by the fathers of the children for women with disabilities at the disability union. There are incidents where a man will impregnate a woman with children and then leave. Since they have limited access to family planning services, women with disabilities continue to bear the negative effects of these violations by giving birth to more children than they feed because of lack of economic empowerment.
Political representation of women with disabilities was also lacking due to illiteracy, women with disabilities often cannot afford to be in public for planning meetings despite structures on the ground like the disability council, disability unions among others. You would still find that women with disabilities in comparison to other people are still not well represented.
Through community dialogues, face-to-face consultations with women with disabilities, some women with disabilities in the district have gained from the capacity building trainings in leadership, prevention of gender-based violence against women with disabilities and accessed government empowerment programs such as Emyooga, Youth Livelihood Program, among others.
Emphasis on the social inclusion of women and girls with disabilities through their involvement and meaningful participation in activities of other organisations like the National Association of Women of Uganda has greatly supported their leadership development. They are now ably advocating and championing their rights through the weekly radio talk-show where they talk about disability concerns alone. Since the district’s radio coverage extends to Lango, Kareng, Agago and Pader, messages of disability awareness and the rights of women and girls with disabilities have received audience in neighboring districts.
Advocacy for Inclusive Women’s Movement in Uganda (AIM) with the support of UN Women under the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls is being implemented in the districts of Tororo and Kitgum by National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU).