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The Herald, 16 September, 1985

A TWO-WEEK workshop on disabled women and girls attended by delegates from all over Africa opens in Harare today.

The workshop, which has been organised by the International Labour Organisation, is expected to be attended by about 30 delegates from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and the ANC, PAC and Swapo.

The ILO expert on rehabilitation and organiser of the workshop, Mrs Dee Burck, told The Herald the main aim of the workshop was to discuss the problems faced by disabled women and girls in society and to find ways of solving them.

“Disabled women are in most cases facing a multiple handicap as their problems are a combination of the problems faced by women in general, disabled people in general and added to that the common problems related to persons living in the rural areas,” she said.

The main problem areas expected to be discussed at the workshop are: the role of disabled women in organisations for the disabled and their participation in activities of everyday life; medical rehabilitation; prevention of disabilities and general health care for the disabled; education, vocational training and job possibilities.

“One of the major problems we hope will be discussed at the workshop will be the question of integrating the disabled into normal schools and organisations or arranging special schools for them.”

There were many different schools of thought about the question of integration.

Some professionals believed that integration was an important part of rehabilitation. But others felt integration could result in retarding rehabilitation, especially that of women.

“Women are still facing so many problems, so to integrate will result in them not advancing for about five years as it is usually habitual in organisations to solve general problems first and women are usually the last ones to be discussed.”

It was hoped that the workshop would make recommendations, identify research goals and formulate project ideas by the end of the two weeks. It will be officially opened by the Minister of Labour, Manpower Planning and Social Welfare, Dr Frederick Shava, today.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• Workshops of such a nature focus on empowerment, advocacy and creating networks among delegates. One of the primary goals is to empower disabled women and girls by providing them with tools, resources, and knowledge that can help them advocate for their rights.
• Women and girls with disabilities are often pushed to extreme margins and experience profound discriminations. Mobility is very crucial for them because they also want to do business just like everyone else.
• The Government of Zimbabwe has come up with policies that protect people living with disabilities from the risk of violence and abuse, including sexual violence, gender-based discriminatory practices, and limited access to education, health care (including sexual and reproductive health), information, services, justice, as well as civic and political participation.