Educate and Empower 400 PLWD Leaders in Nigeria

Educate and Empower 400 PLWD as Leaders in Nigeria

Our strategic long-term “Sustainable Transformative Education Project” (STEP)  continue to make some foundational contextual findings and making some impact on legislative imperative regarding the 31,000,000 Persons Living with Disabilities in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the only primary legislation on persons with disabilities is the “Discrinination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018”. This  aims to esure their full integration into society and establishes the National Comission for Person with Disabilities. More than five years since the law was signed, the paths to its sustainable impact is  difficult to decipher.

With little or no access to specialized health, equal access to education, access to inclusive mobility to public spaces, access to assistive technology, and absence of legal framework to protect the rights and dignity of PLWDs in Nigeria remains a mirage.  There remains miriads of challenges facing PLWD in Nigeria. The fundamental and general neglect has driven the PLWD to street begging. The abandonment, and outright cultural stigmatization remains critical elements of the ongoing  challenges facing them. Further, lack of obvious data to drive both policy formulation, policy implementations to support effective advocacy for PLWDs in Nigeria remain an obvious obstacle. The needs to carry out a landscaping analysis of PLWDs challenges that  could inform further strategic advocacy programs, formulation of holistic legal framework and effective action urgent & necessary.

 Hence, beginning this quarter, the GIEVA Organization’s started a  landscaping study of the needs of PLWD in Nigeria in collaboration with the Department of Education and Rehabilition, University of Jos. The study would  enable us begin to gather context based data for informed decision. The preliminary data  is beginning to reveal the abysmal conditions, neglects and outright abandonment of the  PLWDs in Nigeria.

It is espected that, part of the ongoing landscaping study will help to provide bench mark strategies and data to inform our uderstanding in strategically address the issue of neglect and abandonment of the PLWDs in social and economic integration. The landscaping analysis study wishes to understand as to which extent are PLWDs have access to education, physical accessibility to building, special health services, and assistive technology devices in Nigeria? The data collected from students with disabilities  and their analysis will determine the nature of targeted interventions, provide grounds for informed support and advocacy programs towards empowering them through our strategic 10-year education and empowerment plan. 

Preliminary data analysis indicates the emergence of the depth, width, and heights of an embbeded cultural stigmatization, and how these seem to be  impacting directly as to their ability to have access to services.  It is hoped, that the total findings of the landscaping analysis will lead to empowering organizations with similar missions to address the needs of integration of PLWDs into social and economic framework and change the narrative.  

With GIEVA’s intentional approach in developing a roadmap for effective data-gathering, its ten-years strategic project: “Educate and Empower 400 Persons Living With Disabilities” in Nigeria, we  have initiated service-centerd advocacy programs and promoting targeted strategic needs which have emerged in preliminary findings from the landscape analysis.

During this coming quarter we embark on supporting the provision of:

1. Sign language interpreters for hard-of-hearing students for an initial period of 6months

2. Assistive technology devices to enable them meet some of the PLWD students to meet the learning needs,

3. Payment of students’ clearance fees to enhance ability to graduate and join the work force and leadership.

 4. Context-driven fundraising activities to advocate support for students with mobility challenges

5. A strategic and holistic legal and enforceable framework to protect the dignity and rights of about ten percent of the population.   

6. Platforms for developing micro projects that address health and education  related issues.  

7. Pairing system in which PLWD leaders are orgnized to be part of a network of support groups.

Our participation in commemorating the International Day of Persons With Disabilities Program themed, “Amplifying the Leadership of Persons With Disabilities For An Inclusive And Sustainable Future” organized by the Plateau State Disability Rights Commission and The Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities has opened a door to a wider  and target population leading to a meaningful dialogue.

Dorothy continues to be our resilient  advocate and in 2025  has planned to share her story and champion the establsihment of support group for female paraplegics as it relates to sanitary products (diapers, sanitary towels, catheter, and urine bags). Dorothy continue to inspire us in her belief that “Disability is not the absence of creativity, innovation, and human inherent resilience”.

Finally, we at GIEVA wish to extend our sincere appreciation to GlobalGiving organization for providing this unique platform to continue to tell our stories, and to all our ever faithful donors that always support this strategic vision and mission to create a pathway for PLWDs in Nigeria.. .