Inclusivity for disabled children in South Africa

The Zero Project Conference – an annual disability inclusion gathering at the United Nations Office at Vienna in February – brings together innovators and key decision makers from all sectors to foster partnerships, share new proven solutions, and support the international scaling of these solutions, all towards the mission for a world with zero barriers. This year's conference highlighted new and innovative solutions from around the world centered around the theme of Independent Living & Political Participation.

Shonaqui['s work in partnership with parents of children with disabilities across South Africa was recognized as an awardee - from 319 nominations across the globe to a short list of 156, we are the only South African organization.

The Parent Network was established to respond to the need for support and connection between families of PWD. Watch this video to find out more. It’s a digital network that uses existing technology to allow parents of children with disabilities (CWDS) to connect to address their realities across all nine provinces of South Africa. The work of the network is informed by participatory practices enabling parents to play an active and influential role in decisions that affect their lives and to support parents to identify solutions to barriers themselves.

Congrats to the team!

Our South Africa team focuses on the entire ecosystem and addresses attitudinal barriers, and beliefs about people with disabilities which are important determinants of social inclusion. Negative perceptions indicate that stigmatization is still prevalent. Shifting these makes a positive contribution toward greater inclusion.

Rebecca and Anita raised the importance of being part of the community. “Lots of people don’t understand disability so we are always teaching them about it. Sometimes they see it as a lot of work, but the person who lives with disability gets used to it. For her, it does't feel like such a mountain. You get used to giving medication, planning the time of the day for eating, changing nappies, and so on. It becomes a way of life.

For them, access barriers such as transport influence their lives quite significantly. Public transport is another challenge. "Not every taxi will pick you up when you have a disability, so you should make an appointment for someone to transport you. Or we have to wait for the ambulance because patient transport can't accommodate us with her wheelchair. To do this we have to be at the clinic at 06:00 am, and then we will probably only be back 06.00pm tonight. It's what we must do because how else will we get there? We don't have money to pay for transport. We only have her grant money to care for her so we have to make do."

By provoding Let's Talk Disability trainings and psychosocial support in communities, the team addresses these attitudinal barriers.

We believe that building ecosystems that support inclusion will result in children with disabilities and their families being equipped with knowledge and tools to make informed choices and develop agency to action these. We believe this may be key to them experiencing equal and meaningful participation in a supportive and enabling environment.

Thank you for your ongoing support!