WHAT IS YOUNG DISABLED PEOPLE

 G OC  REPORT AND ALL THE ATTACMENTS  OF WHAT WE DOING IN MALAWI.

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Who are ‘young disabled people’?
By young disabled people, we mean both disabled children (up to the age of 18) and disabled young people who are negotiating the difficult transition between childhood and an adult life with a family and income of their own.
What is the status of young disabled people in Africa?
Despite the free primary education many African governments now provide, disabled children are rarely considered and the support and facilities they need to access integrated free education are seldom provided. Most African countries lack any co-ordinated effort to address the rights of young disabled people and to ensure their participation.
What commitments have been made by African leaders on disability?
The UN African Decade of Disability began in 1999, when the Heads of State of the African Union made a proclamation on the Full Participation, Equality and Empowerment of People with Disabilities in Africa. In it, they recognised that environmental hazards, natural disaster, accidents, conflict and war increase the levels of disability on the continent. They recognised the need to improve the provision opportunities and services for people with disabilities, as well as tackling attitudinal change and accessibility.
What progress has been made on disability in Africa?
Disability movements have begun to make some headway towards achieving change. For example, in  Malawi
disabled people have achieved significant participation in political life. However, there is still a need to ensure that positive policies are translated into inclusive practice. The presence of USDC in Uganda means that the government will be continually reminded of its responsibility to ensure the involvement of young disabled people in development processes.
How many young disabled people are there in Africa?
Most African countries have not collected accurate national statistics about the numbers of young disabled people who live there. We do know that over half of the continent’s population is under the age of 18. We also know that on average approximately 10% of people worldwide are living with disability. We therefore estimate that 50 million people, one in every 8 people living on the African continent, is a young disabled person.
Are there other organisations focused on disability issues in Africa?
There are a number of international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on disability issues. Several restrict their activities to a single disability and those who look at a range of disabilities do not specialise, specifically, in working with children and young people. Many international NGOs who work with children include some disability-related projects in their work, but often see childhood disability as a marginal concern. Some child-centred organisations have incorporated activities with young disabled people into their work, but a concentrated effort to improve the lives of young people in Africa is still lacking.
What are the main obstacles to change?
Throughout the consultation on our strategy document, our most disturbing findings were about continued rejection, neglect, abuse and marginalisation of young disabled people. This illustrates the huge distance that has to be travelled in terms of attitude by communities, families, NGOs and governments if young disabled people are to be afforded their human rights. This process will require a huge shift in all of our attitudes and a total rethink of our approach to ability and inclusion.
Why is changing attitudes towards disability particularly important?
During our consultation, we were continually reminded that many parents still feel that the birth of a disabled child is a great misfortune:
“God is unjust because he creates. I am not a bad person but I have to look after a child with disability. Bad people do not face similar fate” – a mother from a focus group discussion in Malawi.
“…the father and the stepmother of a disabled child locked him in a goat house without feeding him so that he could die. The neighbours became curious and concerned when they did not see the child around for two days. Since nobody could tell them the whereabouts of the child, they called in the local councillor who mounted a search and found the child in a frightening state.”
We also found that most men blamed disability on mothers and believed that they had brought misfortune into the home by giving birth to young disabled people. A local government worker in Malawi was one of many men who denied parenting a disabled child: “I do not give birth to such children”.
Addressing the attitudes of parents and everyone else in communities will be of critical importance if the rights of young disabled people are to be realised.
What other challenges do young disabled people face?
We found that young disabled people struggled at each stage to access the services which they needed in terms of healthcare and rehabilitation, education, training and, later, employment. By supporting local organisations to develop locally appropriate examples of how these challenges can be met, we believe that we will be building long-term capacity as well as contributing to the necessary changes in attitudes.