WOMEN living with disabilities in the country have expressed gratitude to the government on its commitments to improve livelihoods of people with disabilities (PWDs), especially by linking them with other stakeholders.
The group made the remarks during a meeting organised to get feedback of the project titled ‘Strengthening Activism for Women and Girls with Disabilities (SAWGD)’ in Dar es Salaam, recently.
SAWGD project is being implemented by Action on Disability and Development (ADD) International in collaboration with the government through the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Employment and Persons with Disabilities.
SAWGD is a one- year project which was launched in April this year and draws to closure in March next year. Majorly, it focuses on empowering women and girls living with disabilities in Mtwara, Iringa, Coast, Kilimanjaro regions and Zanzibar.
One component of the project is building and strengthening leadership skills of women with disabilities.
Chairing the meeting, Dorice Kwanga, from Movement of Women with Disabilities and Children in Tanzania (MOWADITA) told reporters that the government has been doing a lot to improve conditions of the two groups.
“As people living with disabilities we have special needs to enable us to live. ADD International is doing its part, but it cannot do everything … we are very thankful to the government by recognising our rights and creating an environment which suits our needs”, she said.
She further said that the government emphasis on public buildings to have friendly infrastructures for people with disabilities and reviewing the 2005 Disability Act as well as providing teaching and learning tools to students with disabilities, are some of the notable achievements in supporting the group.
However, she said there were some challenges in which women and girls living with disabilities are still facing in the society, citing one as stigma .
“To date, there are still cultures which do not respect women at all. And there are also communities which regard disability as a curse. Therefore, being a disabled woman in such environment means facing stigmatisation and all sorts of humiliation twice as much,”, said Ms Lupi Maswanya from Deaf Association (CHAVITA).
She further said that most of them also bear family members’ oppressive acts including not being respected.
Hence, she insisted on the need of creating awareness in the public on the rights of people living with disabilities, especially as from family levels.
Statistics show that, globally the number of women living with disability is higher in comparison to that of men, where in most cases it is one out of five women.