Support A Young Girls Leadership Academy in India

Over the past decade, the SELF Academy has expanded across regions and adapted to address the new issues that young women and girls face. In partnership with Akili Dada and Femme Forte, we launched the very first SELF Academy in East Africa in 2022, hosted in Uganda, followed by a second cohort in 2023. In 2024, CREA delivered the second East African iteration of the academy in Rwanda, in partnership with Hope for Single Mothers, the Rwanda National Association of Deaf Women, and Afro Ark. 

25 young women, including seven who were deaf and eight with significant physical disabilities, came together in a 15-day residential leadership and rights-based programme, conducted in the vernacular language of Kinyarwanda. We worked with three sign language interpreters, who stayed on-site throughout, and the content was adapted for accessibility with closed captions on visual media, image descriptions, and screen-reader-friendly formats. The venue was also equipped to support the participants' mobility needs.

“What I have learned at SELF has given me strength, and I will share it with others and live by it in my life.”

The participants reported that the sessions on gender, sexuality, disability rights, and SRHR opened up conversations that many were having for the first time. Forty per cent of the participants reported a significant increase in their knowledge of disability rights, while the remaining 60% reported a substantial increase. For many, it was their first time learning alongside girls with such a wide range of disability experiences. Most described a shift in how they viewed disability, both their own and others’.

While CREA has always created accessible spaces, being intentional about it requires cost, effort, and the right partnerships. The Rwanda edition of SELF was able to focus on deaf girls and women in part due to strong partnerships with disability-rights organisations.. These experiences will not only enrich the 2025 SELF Academy in East Africa but also future SELF Academies in India, and we look forward to sharing with you what that will look like!