SHIVYAWATA continued conducting Rights Awareness Trainings on leadership and political participation to people with disabilities
Persons with disabilities have improved their skills in advocating for their rights to leadership and political participation following a series of training sessions to more than 300 people who are leaders of Disabled People Organisations in Tanzania.
Tanzania Federation of Disabled People's Organisations (SHIVYAWATA) conducted trainings on awareness of their rights in eight regions and reached people from the respective 41 districts and two regions of Zanzibar in August..
Training sessions covered political participation and leadership rights and the role of persons with disabilities leaders in advancing leadership and political participation of persons with disabilities.
Training sessions also provided an overview of the electoral system in Tanzania, electoral process and law and the role of key institutions such as NEC and ZEC, Office of the Registrar of Political Parties and Civil Society Organisations in Elections. Following the training participants said they were now going to make sure they voted on election day as they had increased their understanding of the importance of voting.
The training sessions provided a platform for Participants to exchange ideas and challenges. Safeness and security is one of the most common reasons for participants not to participate in political processes, for instanceAt the Mara Region training held in Musoma participants with albinism said that they did not feel safe when going to meetings because of the risk of kidnap / killings for their body parts. Ms Happiness Manobi said that she has been intimidated via SMS oftens and she was under Police protetion.
However,, She also reported that her triplet sister, also albino,, had been missing since she was seven years old.. “Due to the link between killing of people with albinism and politicians I stay as far away from political rallies as possible,,” Ms Manobi said. Persons with restricted mobility said they did not feel safe attending political rallies as they could not get away easily if the situation became violent. They said this prevented them from being able to meet / hear / see candidates to enable them to make an informed choice about who to vote for. This was the same for those who are vision or hearing impaired..
Challenging negative community stereotypes about persons with disabilities capacity to be leaders also continued to prevent them from standing for nomination or election. Ms Lucia Daudi Mwita stood in the recent local elections. “Although I did not win I felt empowered. The community was shocked to see me as a woman, and a woman with a disability (her left arm is missing) standing up and speaking in front of the community,” said Ms Mwita .
At the conclusion, the training action plans were developed by leaders, from each district who will now be responsible for activities in their districts reaching other persons with disabilities and supporting them to engage in democratic and electoral processes.