Education for Girls with disabilities

Changemaker: Mariam Namata

Country of implementation: Uganda

The chances that girls with disabilities go to school in Uganda are next to impossible. Uganda’s perception

of disability is considered a curse, and misfortune to the family and hence denied all rights to education and a good job. Mariam Namata, a participant of GCM school and a co-founder of Dignify Girls and Women With Disabilities Association (DGWDA), community-based women with disabilities- led Organisation based in Uganda. realized that girls with disabilities are facing multiple and complex challenges right from birth to adulthood.

DGWDA works to take to school girls with disabilities through community mobilization and sensitization of the girls with disabilities, their caretakers/parents, and other stakeholders. With support from Global Changemakers, a commercial mushroom-growing project has been put in place to sustain some of the basic school expenses for 20 girls with disabilities from the Butambala District in Uganda. These girls are peer educators and champions of change. Their parents are trained as Trainers to reach out to more parents of girls with disabilities. In addition, the project supports sessions on life skills for girls with disabilities so that self-stigma is removed from them, allowing them to fruitfully

interact with fellow learners without disabilities.