The activity was to mentor young girls and women on disability rights and the struggle of women development through capacity building. Women with disabilities often face discrimination in all the spheres of life, hence this program is meant to equip young ladies and women with strong intellectual capacities in developing and strengthening their skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that persons with disabilities need to survive, adapt an8d thrive in a fast-changing world, as well as confidence and independence. At the visit to the National Center for Women Development, we had an interaction with Mrs. Scholastica Kalama, who is the head of training at the ICT center where she shared her life experiences from the onset of her disability, academic journey, career path and how she has raised a family and as well-balanced work and family.
Advocacy and prioritizing the needs of the different disabilities is how she has surmounted discrimination from people without disability. She further encourages young women with disability to be independent and never let anyone take advantage of their impairments and to always focus on their minds not their disability. She also emphasized on the paramountcy of technological innovations in making life and work easier, especially working on a computer. From the center she has trained over a thousand people with disability and hopes to do more in the future.
Women with disabilities have grown their collective capacity to voice their concerns and their progress is secured to realize their rights in areas of strategic importance to them. This work stream will support coordinated advocacy by women with disabilities through targeted advocacy support, innovations and trainings.
The mentees learnt the various strategies and surviving mechanism on career progression in civil service, strategies of managing work and family, personal self-development.
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Women can rise to their peak at any career path they choose.
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Women with disability are not defined by what people see but by what capacity they have.
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Women innovators may very well pave way for Nigerian to become a prosperous economy within one generation.
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Women with disability can be independent if they work out and always standout.
Activity Location:
National Centre for Women Development, Central Business District, Abuja – FCT
