A little on who we are

We are the Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities

We are a loose group that brings together organizations and experts working on the rights of women and girls with disabilities in Kenya. 

We came to be, because of a gap that we noticed. Our issues falling within the cracks of both the women’s rights and disability rights movements. As a result, the issues of women and girls with disabilities often get left out on many discussions on human rights. 

We work, in our different spaces as women leaders with diverse disabilities, to amplify the voices of women and girls with disabilities at the national, regional and international level to ensure that we participate in all spaces and our concerns are included and addressed in discussions on women’s rights and disability rights.

Our conviction is that there cannot be anything about women and girls with disabilities that does not have women and girls with disabilities in the lead.

This blog will be highlighting various experiences and highlights of our work.

Send us an email: advocacynetworkkenya@gmail.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Processing our Pains, our Traumas... Collectively

Image
We live in a world that does not recognize pain," said Melissa Wainaina in a recent session with us. "To survive, we've been pushed to mask what we feel to fit in." These poignant words set a stage for us, as women with diverse disabilities in our Network, to start a reflection process. To not only think about the pains we go through at individual levels but also begin to think not just about pain and trauma but broadly about how they intersect with our collective advocacy...and what we would do about it. Unwelcoming Ableist Spaces as a Source of Trauma Experiences of trauma are not alien to many of us. Some experiences of growing up with disabilities in ableist societies include abandonment, exclusion and segregation, invisibility, esteem issues, fear, and uncertainty about acceptance, among many others. It goes without saying that many of these experiences are traumatic, yet often, we push them to the periphery. We don't talk about them. We immerse...
Read more

It is Ableism: Naming the Harm, Demanding Change

Image
There is a disturbing video of a Kenyan MP asking a person with a disability (someone of short stature) to run across a podium, to make a point as to why people with a disability cannot be employed in the police force. The MP asks the disabled man to make a ‘salute gesture’ and goes ahead to laugh at the whole scenario, while saying that ‘people should stop joking about hiring disabled people in the police force.’ At the Podium where everyone laughs at the deeply concerning scene of blatant ableism, sits the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the security docket. There is also another man with a disability on the podium. This has drawn widespread and sharp criticism, as it should. As women with disabilities, we are also adding our voices to condemn it.  Ableism as violence At the onset, we are naming this type of violence. It is called ableism. Ableism is a form of discrimination against people with disabilities rooted in the belief that nondisabled people or typical abilities—such as ...
Read more

My JOURNEY:WOMEN WITH DISABILITY IN LEADERSHIP

Image
As the Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities continues to amplify the experiences of women and girls with disabilities within leadership and governance spaces, through support from the  Ford Foundation ,the Network has embarked on a campaign that seeks to showcase the experiences of 40 women and girls with disabilities from across four counties namely Kakamega, Kisumu, Nairobi, and Mombasa in Kenya. The leadership journey is not without its struggles.It can get more difficult for women and girls with disabilities who often have to navigate different barriers within their environments. Leadership experiences are not limited to certain spaces.Our women with disabilities are therefore in leadership and different spaces.They are in political leadership;they are village ward administrators, they are activists and champion the rights of women and girls with disabilities in different spaces. What common characteristics do they have? They are women with disabilities who are bo...
Read more