SAFOD

Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled

	Home< Programmes< COPE

Conscientisation and Public Education Programme (COPE)

Manual

....for the Planning, Organising and Implementation of an 

Awareness Building Campaign (ABC) for Disabled People in Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique in 2007

read more>>

Conscientises leaders and activists of the disability movement about the underdevelopment and marginalization of disabled people. Educates the public at large on the plight of disabled people.

 Vice President of Malawi, Hon. Justin Malewezi, (left) thanks FEDOMA Chairman Mussa Chiwaula at the launching of the            Awareness Building Campaign. SAFOD Director General Alexander Phiri and FFO-Representative Grete Brundtland watching from behind.

Lack of information is one of the biggest problems facing disabled people

Without information about rights, services, technical aids and health care, disabled people are excluded from their communities. But also the society has no full information about disabled people.

Today it is common knowledge that all over the world people with disabilities are excluded from the mainstream society and experience severe difficulties in accessing fundamental rights.

In developing countries such as those found on the African continent, there is a strong relationship between disability and poverty. Poverty makes people become more vulnerable to disability, and disability reinforces and deepens poverty.

Disabled persons face particularly oppression and discrimination. According to traditional belief, persons with disabilities are considered bewitched, and reports of disabled children being hidden away from public view when visitors arrive especially in rural areas are common. Tribal and religious groups strongly influence the way disabled people are viewed in the society.

Disabled people are sometimes thought of as bad omens and therefore rejected or abandoned. Disabled people are often viewed as unproductive and even useless.

Negative attitudes and beliefs lead to many kinds of exclusion, such as:

- teachers refuse to teach disabled children
- employers refuse to employ disabled people
- landlords refuse to rent houses to disabled people
- bus drivers refuse to transport disabled passengers
- medical personnel treat disabled people as sick and ill
- limited access to public buildings by disabled people
- limited access to information by disabled people
- disabled people are abandoned.

To give information not only to disabled people but to the so-called “abled-bodies” SAFOD with the full support of the Norwegian Federation of Disabled People and NORAD organized Disability Awareness Building Campaigns - one from 1999 to 2001 in Malawi in co-operation with the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA) and one from 2002 to 2004 in Namibia in co-operation with the National Federation of People with Disabilities in Namibia (NFPDN).
In several workshops disabled persons addressed policy-makers like Members of Parliament, community leaders like traditional chiefs, governmental and non-governmental organizations and the media to raise awareness for the human rights of disabled people.
This campaigns brought some exceptional efforts to the disability movements in this countries. Not only the national organizations experienced improvement, but also:

-     In Malawi the President established a Minister for Disability Affairs in his office and appointed disability activist George Claver as Minister. Susan Chitimbe was appointed following the untimely death of Claver.

-     In Namibia the Prime Minister established the position of a Disability Adviser in his Office and appointed Tjuieza Tjombumbi as the Disability Affaires Officer.

-     Another important result of this campaigns was the publication of the Manual for the Planning, Organising and Implementation of an Awareness Building Campaign (ABC) on Disability.