Sexual And Reproductive Rights Education For Persons With Disabilities.

THE GENESIS

During my yearly Sickle Cell Awareness Campaign in June 2021, I was linked with one lady who is disabled and also taking care of a child with sickle cell.

Upon talking with her, I came to understand that she was completely ignorant about a lot of things vis-a-vis reproductive health and genotype testing and compatibility. Her story and the challenges she is going though as a person with a disability and raising a child with an invisible disability (sickle cell) was like dealing with a double jeopardy.

When I got selected for WILD (Women Institute in Leadership and Disability) by Mobility International (MIUSA) in August 2021, at the end of our virtual classes, we were asked to come up with an Action Plan to implement targeting women and girls with disabilities.

The conversation I.had with the lady mentioned earlier stayed with me and looking at the list of topics we could develop our action plans around, I settled for sexual and reproductive health, adding genotype knowledge and screening in line with my advocacy to bring awareness on sickle cell and genotype compatibility, ensuring that no one is left behind in this vital knowledge.

Our society still believes that sickle cell and disabilities are curses. Having to deal with the two is like dealing with double curses in the absence of knowledge. Therefore, my action plan seeked to target this unique group, making me tread through a road less traveled.

PREPARATION and COLLABORATION.

Once the plan was approved by MIUSA, preparations went underway. Here is where the power of positive collaboration came into play. I worked remotely using Whatsapp mostly and email sparingly to plan with Regina Young. Through her, Veronica was actively engaging in the.background. Together, we planned and were able to carry the plan out after months of planning on Wednesday, 16th March 2022.

SETBACKS.

Intitially, my target was 100 women and girls with varied disabilities. However, Regina suggested we start with 50 so that we could easily follow up and evaluate them, then we can go for another 50 etc.

It was a sensible and practical advice and so we focused on working for the first time with 50 women and girls with disabilities.

However, at the end, we had to cut down to 25 women with disabilities. Two attempts at having sponsors didn't fall through and being self sponsored from a limited pocket, we had to.cut down the numbers for a start to.where our budget could reach. Furthermore, not getting the partnership also meant missing out on having the ladies present to benefit from a free genotype screening exercise initially planned. Also, my health challenges and the ongoing Anglophone Conflict made it difficult to be there in person but I didn't have to worry on that as my sisters Regina and Veronica came through powerfully and made the event a huge success...the power of sisterhood and collaboration we learn on World Pulse was so beautifully demonstrated. I am grateful for this and I pray this be the beginning of many such collaborations as we seek to educate and empower women with disabilities in all the important ways. It was also heartwarming inspite of everything, to learn that this was the first time genotype knowledge and compatibility was incorporated in a reproductive health workshop for persons with disabilities. Other topics discussed amongst others was menstrual hygiene management.

There is so much we can do with the right support and collaboration.

This is yet another initiative I will be championing and my wish is that I can get the needed financial and moral support to carry this to more persons with disabilities.

#Joy2Endure