By Rauf Oyewole
Wife of the Bauchi State Governor, Aisha Bala Mohammed, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Al-Muhibbah Foundation have distributed starter packs to 300 persons living with disabilities (PWDs) across the state.
The distribution was done to mark this year's International Day for Persons Living with Disabilities. The First Lady said that the 2024 theme "Empowering Disability Inclusion," aligns perfectly with her husband's mission to build a society where everyone, irrespective of challenges, has access to equal opportunities.
“I am proud to announce that we are taking a monumental step toward this vision by empowering 1,155 persons with disabilities today with startup capital. This initiative is more than financial support, it is an investment in dreams, skills, and the inherent capabilities of those who often face systemic barriers.”
Speaking on the 16 days of activism, Aisha said that the Bauchi State Action Committee on GBV under her Chairmanship has reached out to over 1,000 communities in the 11 Councils of with advocacy and sensitisation, providing training, counseling, and assistance to over 600 survivors of various forms of gender-based violence.
“The Sexual Assault Referral Centre in the Specialist Hospital offers free and confidential health care for survivors of GBV,” she added.
Also speaking, the Gender/Reproductive Health Analyst and Bauchi State Programme Officer of UNFPA, Deborah Tabara, said that persons with disabilities remain sorely under-represented throughout the world’s parliaments and halls of power – excluded from policy- and decision-making on issues that affect their lives.
“As a result, their expertise is overlooked, and their rights and choices are too often denied. The discrimination and social stigma persons with disabilities face is compounded by inequality tied to gender and other factors, such as age and ethnicity. Their vulnerabilities are even more acute in humanitarian crises, as they readily lose access to life-saving support systems and struggle to get out of harm’s way.”
Tabara said that women and girls with disabilities face higher rates of gender-based violence and lower levels of access to reproductive health information. She added that more than half of women with disabilities have been told not to have a child. “This undermines their right to bodily autonomy and to make their own decisions about whether to form a family,” she said.
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