This-Ability is a social enterprise focused on advancing Disability Rights and Inclusion in Kenya.
+254748 263 763
Email: info@this-ability.org
This Ability
Mbo-Mboini Rd, Off Dagoretti Rd, Thogoto. City Kikuyu, Central Province, Kenya. Postal Code: 00509
Background
Women and girls with disabilities in Kenya face double discrimination, first as women and secondly as women with disabilities. This is due to the myriad challenges faced by women with disabilities such as myths and cultural practices that are discriminatory and harmful. According to reports by the World Health Organization, persons with disabilities represent approximately 15% of the world’s population with 80% living in low and middle income countries, and that 20% of the global female population consists of women with disabilities. Documented studies have also shown that, due to several causes, including the higher prevalence of disability among women than men, the increased incidence in gender based violence among women in addition to other factors, women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable due to the fact that they experience disproportionate levels of exclusion.
Based on This Ability experiences, accessing quality sexual reproductive health services has been challenging for women and girls with disabilities despite healthcare centers and medical professionals' potential to offer these services. These challenges include negative attitudes and unconscious biases of medical personnel, inadequately trained medics to attend to their unique needs, physically inaccessible facilities and lack of measures to make service friendly and adaptable to various forms of disability. Furthermore, information and education on sex education, menstrual health, family planning, and other related sexual and reproductive health services is poorly disseminated - in formats that are inaccessible or unavailable to young women with various disabilities. Due to societal attitudes towards the sexuality of women with disabilities, their sexual and reproductive health needs are often not prioritized at the family level; additionally, due to the link between disability and poverty, access becomes a major challenge for those who are economically dependent. Furthermore, within our patriarchal society, decision-making has not prioritized matters of sexual health and rights of women with disabilities, further disempowering them - economically and socially.
The Festival provided a platform to enhance freedom of expression using different art forms that support body autonomy. It was a 5 day community event that initiated conversations from a holistic point of view, where women and girls with disabilities could express themselves through dance, community mental health sessions, coordinated graffiti art, spoken word, fashion and an exhibition market for products made by women with disabilities.
We used different art forms to create spaces for expression for women with disabilities. We had mixed music, dance, graffiti, sexuality conversations, make-up and skin therapy, yoga and fashion to amplify the voices of women with disabilities in a safe space where they were free to express themselves and exchange information. The Festival was also a platform for other artists with disabilities to showcase their skills and perform their art.
Some of our partners who attended the festival had an opportunity to showcase their work and to create awareness to communities of women and girls with disabilities. These partners included Special Olympics of Kenya (SOK) who serve athletes with intellectual disability in sport training. They created awareness of their work to women and girls with disabilities during the festival. We also had Riziki Source who work on job employment for persons with disabilities. They demonstrated how women with disabilities should present themselves during the interviews and documents to carry when going for interviews. We also had Polycom who educated the community on micro income generating activities such as soap making. They demonstrated how sanitary pads are being made locally during the festival.
Over 600 women with disabilities took part in the festival, and allowed us to increase visibility on the rights of women with disabilities during the 16 days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. We held interviews with the UNFPA Media team, Capital FM during the event. During the 5 day Festival we were able to increase our number of engagements, Facebook increased reach to 2,038, Instagram increased reach 195 and Twitter got 4,000 impressions.
We had advocacy meetings with Kenyan Government representatives during the Festival. CAS Nadia Abdalla from the Ministry of ICT, joined intergenerational conversations between Mama Siri’s and Digital Dada’s. CAS Linah Jebii Kilimo from the Ministry of Public Service and Gender joined conversations with Mama Siri and service providers on ways to strengthen the referral pathway and ensure we are providing a better quality of service for women and girls with disabilities. We also agreed to establish MOUs with the service providers such as Kituo cha Sheria to support Mama Siri in legal aid referral cases.
We had advocacy meetings with Kenyan Government representatives during the Festival. CAS Nadia Abdalla from the Ministry of ICT, joined intergenerational conversations between Mama Siri’s and Digital Dada’s. CAS Linah Jebii Kilimo from the Ministry of Public Service and Gender joined conversations with Mama Siri and service providers on ways to strengthen the referral pathway and ensure we are providing a better quality of service for women and girls with disabilities. We also agreed to establish MOUs with the service providers such as Kituo cha Sheria to support Mama Siri in legal aid referral cases.