Feminist and women’s rights movements are powerful forces for change. When women join together, they mobilise, speak up, and demand change for women and girls’ rights.
However, feminist movements—like wider society—do not always represent the voices of all women. Disabled women are often excluded, even though 16% of people globally live with disabilities.
AWESOME addressed this by creating a strong partnership of seven women’s rights organisations. Our partnership includes three disabled women’s rights organisations (EWDNA in Ethiopia, NUWODU in Uganda, and WCC in Kenya), alongside four other women’s rights organisations (SWDA in Ethiopia, FOWODE in Uganda, FIDA Kenya, NUWODU, and Womankind Worldwide in the UK). We collaborated to strengthen our movements in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia by making them more inclusive of disabled women’s voices.
By working in partnership over five years, we strengthened one another and helped to bridge divides between disabled women’s rights organisations and the wider women’s movement. Long-term collaboration created the space and opportunities to learn from each other’s expertise.
The Value of Working in Long-term Partnership
From the outset of our partnership, each organisation tried to mainstream disability rights and accessibility throughout their work and internal practices. One example of a tangible and sustainable shift is that FOWODE and SWDA now consider how to ensure that disabled women are included and can access all their activities. In turn, this means that the voices and priorities of disabled women are listened to and considered within the feminist movements in Uganda and Ethiopia. FIDA Kenya now provides sign interpretation and accessible printed materials by default at its events to ensure that disabled people can engage. This sets a powerful example to others in civil society. Womankind has trained its staff on accessible communication practices, recognising that the range of disabilities includes neurodiverse ways of knowing and communicating.
Not only has the AWESOME project made the women’s movement more accepting of disabled women, but it has also conversely allowed EWDNA to work within the disability movement to make it more representative of women and to ensure disabled women hold leadership positions. During the project, there has been a 50% increase in the number of organisations of disabled people with woman board representatives. WCC’s mentorship approach supported 20 disabled women to contest political seats in the 2022 Kenyan general election. The legacy of this continues to inspire women who hope to run in the upcoming 2027 elections.
Incidentally, sign language interpreters and support persons of disabled people told WCC that AWESOME has impacted their knowledge of disability justice. These individuals now act as disability advocates wherever they go.
Mainstreaming disability rights and accessibility
While the six organisations were acquainted before AWESOME, these changes happened as a direct result of working in a long-term, funded partnership. The partnership created opportunities to be curious and intentionally learn from each other, which evolved over the five years. Some learning happened at in-person meetings, some at webinars, some through joint activities, while other learning happened through the day-to-day interactions of managing a programme together over five years.
None of the changes were pre-determined or ‘designed’. Instead, the changes evolved organically based on each organisation’s own assessment of its gaps, priorities, and preferred approaches to change. This is a strong indicator of sustainability, as nothing has been forced or designed by an outsider.
AWESOME has taught us the value of working in long-term partnership as diverse organisations. We have mutually strengthened each other as a result of true partnership.