Centering our Voices as Women with Disabilities during the 16-Days of Activism

With the support of Womankind Worldwide through the Her Voice Fund (Cycle 4), at the network level, we collectively marked this year’s 16 Days of Activism against GBV across different countries where our members are situated. Our member, Mildred Omino, co-authored a powerful blog that speaks to these realities. 

With the global theme, “End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls,”  we remain alert that digital spaces, once envisioned as platforms for empowerment, are increasingly becoming sites of harassment, cyberbullying, surveillance, exploitation, and exclusion. Women and girls with disabilities face even higher risks due to intersecting discrimination.Read the full article on this link: https://yoursay.plos.org/2025/12/no-woman-left-behind-ending-digital-violence-against-women-and-girls-with-disabilities/

Here is an excerpt:


While TFGBV affects women globally, women and girls with disabilities are disproportionately targeted. Many already encounter stigma, discrimination, and limited access to education, employment, and healthcare. Digital spaces, once seen as tools for inclusion, often replicate or intensify these barriers.

Another poignant point raised in the article is that Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) directed at women with disabilities often exploits the social conditions that they navigate. They note that many women with disabilities would face mockery of appearance or speech, harassment while using assistive devices, or sexualized abuse intended to intimidate and silence them. They also write about women with disabilities being manipulated through scams or extortion that prey on isolation or vulnerability, which results in psychological distress, reputational damage, and reinforced social exclusion that can persist for years. Please read the full article on this link: https://yoursay.plos.org/2025/12/no-woman-left-behind-ending-digital-violence-against-women-and-girls-with-disabilities/ 



With this prior understanding of the challenges we face as women and girls with disabilities, we sought to implement activities at both the national and county levels, where our members could connect with peers in their own communities and collectively raise their voices to address the issue of TFGBV. We were also engaged in the following:



Online Campaign on X (Twitter)


Our members from different counties: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kakamega, Kajiado, and Machakos shared quotes each day for the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence as a way to highlight our experiences as women and girls with disabilities. 

Check these powerful quotes on our X account dated from 25th November to 10th December. Our page is @Kwwdnetwork


Attending different engagements at the Community level


Our members attended community events that supported creating solidarity with other groups in their communities. These included community walks, speaking on community radios to engage communities and raise voices and experiences of women and girls with disabilities; others took part in workshops and other events during the 16 days, where we sought to ensure that our voices were reflected.   


A Webinar on Digital Safety and Ending Technology-Facilitated GBV

We held an internal Webinar targeting our members on 10th December 2025,which is also the globally observed Human Rights Day. 

The virtual session focused on equipping our members with practical knowledge on digital safety, online rights, and reporting mechanisms for technology-facilitated GBV. We had inspiring and empowering conversations where our members shared their experiences digitally and what they were doing to challenge violent online structures.

As we close the 16-day campaign against TFGBV, we are happy to have contributed to the needed conversations of creating safe, inclusive, and equitable digital spaces for all women and girls, including those with disabilities.

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