By Godwin Abedican

Arua

To address the challenges faced by the persons with disability, ZOA International, in consortium with National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), Light for The World, The Hague Academy and Vereeniging van Nederland’s Gemeenten (VNG) International,  with funding from the ministry of foreign affairs of the Netherlands in 2021, launched and began implementing a five years project called “We Are Able” in the region of west Nile covering Arua city and the districts of Terego and Yumbe as well as Omoro together with Nwoya districts in Acholi Sub-region.

Persons with disability in West Nile have appreciated partners under this project that have taken lead in advocating for their rights from the grass root level to address the plight of the many among them, who have been left behind by the society and therefore they are calling for further attention towards them as a result of the positive impact of this project in the areas of implementation.

The, “we are able” project aims at seeing persons with disability improve their rights to land and food security by creating an enabling environment for action at grassroots levels.  The 5 years project running from 2021 till 2025 is a combined 5 billion Ugandan shillings project.

At the onset of this project, the donors conditioned that a midterm project evaluation be carried out as part the project to be conducted in the third year of the project implementation for purposes of assessing project progress made towards achieving the planned objectives, continued relevance of the intervention as well as inform decision-making for further implementation of the project.

In line with the above, this was carried in Arua city for the project areas of Arua city, Terego and Yumbe districts on Monday 17^th July 2023 at Hunters Nest.
During the midterm project evaluation, the persons with disabilities called for more support since the project has opened the minds of many persons with disability and has caused a very huge positive mindset change towards the persons with disabilities.

Viyo Moses Ajayi the chairperson, union of persons with disabilities for Terego district where the project is currently being implemented in the two Sub Counties of Bileafe and Uriama says there has been a huge turnaround as a result of the project. “In the two years of the project, we have been able to get mobilized to form the district union of persons with disabilities and has helped to bring together all the persons with disabilities in the district. This project introduced Pip-farming for the persons with disabilities which has changed the methods of farming among us.

Given this project, I am quite convinced that after 5 years the persons with disability in Terego district will be enlightened enough to advocate for their rights in the district,” Viyo said.

According to him some of the few loopholes he sees is the shortage of funds to extend the program to other Sub-counties in the district such as Aiivu, Odupi, Omugo and Katrini Sub-counties.

He says, the district has adopted the plans they have as a union to in planning through the district council for them so as to have them catered for in the budget, based on the census carried out under the We are able project.


Viyo Moses Ajayi the chairperson, union of persons with disabilities for Terego district

“As a district union if we are catered for we gain strength and know that we are being catered for,” he commented. In Uganda, according to National Population Census, 2014, the disability prevalence among women stood at 15% and 10% among men. 15 percent of the disabilities were in urban areas and 12% in rural areas. Majority of persons with disabilities are subsistence farmers (73.7%) compared to persons without disabilities (61.6%) (UBOS, 2019).

From the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Census Report, about 12.4% of the population is living with a disability. The National Policy on Disability in Uganda therefore, aims at promoting equal opportunities for enhanced empowerment, participation and protection of rights of PWDs irrespective of gender, age and type of disability, which is in line with the “we are abl” project objectives.

Ide Hellen, the accountant and administrator Hope Heath Action an organization that works with PWDs in Bidibidi refugee settlement in Yumbe appeals for the extension of the program deeper into the settlements. “Little did we know about this project not until early this year when I was invited in the district for a meeting. And that was when I got to know about the “We are Able” project as none of the partners have been working with us in this line.

The training and capacity building under this project could really be a better solution to the problems we have. Because the biggest challenge we have is lack of awareness among the people living with disabilities. So, if this program could come to places like BidiBidi, it will really do a lot and take a lot of coverage to see that we are able to facilitate and help the persons with disabilities to know what is expected of them, what they are supposed to be doing and to see how we can help them together,” Yide mentioned.
 
As of 2021, there were fourteen thousand nine hundred twenty three (14,923) persons with disabilities in BidiBdi refugee settlement which number keeps on fluctuating almost on daily basis since more refugees keep crossing the borders into and out of Uganda and South Sudan.

She says as an organisations, they engage the PWDs in agricultural projects, Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) among others in the settlement to help them earn for their living. “In our projects we look at the PWDs one hundred percent through supports like wheel chairs, artificial limbs etc. The way forwards in this midterm project evaluation are so good that if the resolutions can be forwarded to the settlements, then a lot can change for the persons with disabilities in the settlement,”  Ide explained.

Godwin Azale the hub manager “we are able” project appreciates the willing ness by authorities in the implementing districts in taking up the project. “We are able to hear now that because of our engagements with the public authorities, through various activities, disability awareness trainings, inclusive governance trainings, local inclusion agenda development workshops and many other platforms, even they are now beginning to perceive the drives towards disability inclusion positively,” he noticed.

“They have now differentiated between lobby and advocacy and activism and the path the Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) have taken is lobby and advocacy that’s why you keep hearing these positive changes. If up to now there is an organisations or any authority that does not do anything on mainstreaming disability inclusion i.e. gender and disability inclusion then things are not right there,” Azale said.

According to him there is a very high demand for an extension of the project to other parts of the region but resource constraints can’t allow. “There are a lot of reports of the positive results from the project even from areas outside our operation areas, a sign of willingness form communities to embrace the approaches in the “We are Able” program and therefore, if resources could allow, then the project could be spread everywhere.

He urges the OPDs and CSOs to embrace exchange learning using the approach of the We are Able project with other colleagues implementing programs that target the PWDs in the areas where the we are able project dos not reach instead of waiting for the we are able program to reach all areas, just a matter of absorbing.

Part of the activities in the project includes, mobilizing the community through an inclusive modern farming called the pip integrated farm plan approach, an inclusive saving approach called i-save, mobilizing the PWDs to belong to grassroots saving groups who in turn subscribe membership to the unions.
In pathway two of the project, the OPDs receive building up of their capacities to self-manage their activities and do self-advocacy ensuring they are credible legitimate capable and have a good outcome of Organization capacity assessment after their trainings.

Azale however appeals to the OPDs to ensure they keep in close contact with those at the grassroots as they are a main bridge between authorities and their members. ”They should be able to engage public authorities in lobby and advocacy with the purpose of ensuring that inclusive legislations are made, in relation to food security, and land rights for PWDs and all special interest groups.

When the legislations are made it comes back to the grass roots through the OPDs, a relationship we refer to as theory of change in this project” he appealed.    

Ellen Geerlings, the consultant for the midterm evaluation of the project traveled from the Netherlands for the one day midterm project evaluation. According to her the findings in this evaluation is what shall form the drawing board for other decisions about the project “Normally in evaluating you start with the base line, where at the start of the project you measure the situation at that time, which informs a decision to have a midterm evaluation to see if the project is going in the right direction and then at the end, there is supposed to be an end line evaluation to see if the project really reached its targets and had an impact, and that’s why this is being done,” Geerlings said.

“This is a very big evaluation in which we did surveys among the communities of PWDs and one of the things that we found was that around 38% of PWDs say they are not taken seriously by the government, which could be as a result of the project not taking place in all the communities since not all the people are catered for yet.  As we talk about advocacy and lobbying, this takes time to take effect, so people are not yet seeing the fruits of the project as thought,” she added.

About extension she says she is not aware of what the plans are in the future for the project. “From my point of view, I don’t know what plans are in the future. I think there is some talk of extending the project though I can’t confirm since I don’t have the information on that yet. From the evaluation the best

I have seen is the strength and ability of the project getting other people on board which has increased the project scope and has led to the scaling up of activities which is a strong component I have seen on ground. The weaker part is that the pathway of lobby and advocacy is a very long way and this makes it difficult for immediate effects of the project to been seen.

With this project, it’s supposed to end after 5 years, and within the project design, it’s meant to be sustainable and especially here in Uganda the project is very powerful in partnering up with other CSOs who have continued to support different parts of the project as a result of the lobbying by the OPDs something that has contributed to the sustainability pans of the project.

 
Ellen Geerlings, the consultant for the midterm Evaluation of the project

According to the census conducted as part of this project in the three implementing areas, there are currently four thousand seven hundred seventy nine (4,779) persons with disabilities in Arua City while Terego has five thousand seven hundred thirteen (5,713) and Yumbe district has seven thousand four hundred fifty 7,450 persons with disability.

COVER PHOTO: The members of SCOs and OPDs during the Mid-Term Project evaluation at Hunters Nest, Arua City By Godwin Abedican