Rather than being defined by these barriers, Nalini has become a driving force for change. As Executive Committee President of the Women with Disabilities Association in Mauritius, she has played a key role in organizing and strengthening the movement of women with disabilities, ensuring their voices are heard and their rights advanced.

At the community level, Nalini has led consultations on sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence, creating safe spaces for women with disabilities to share their experiences, identify challenges, and collectively shape solutions. These consultations have contributed to breaking silence, informing advocacy, and strengthening community-driven responses.

One of Nalini’s most notable achievements is her leadership in advocacy and campaigning that contributed to the creation of designated blue parking spaces for persons with disabilities in Mauritius. This milestone not only improved accessibility but also marked an important step toward recognition of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities in public spaces.

Her influence extends to national, regional, and global platforms. Nalini has contributed to shadow reporting processes under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and actively participated in in-person review sessions, ensuring that the lived realities of women with disabilities in Mauritius are brought to global human rights platforms.

Regionally, she engaged in the 87th Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, contributing to discussions on Mauritius’ progress under the Maputo Protocol and the African Charter.

Nalini embodies bold, inclusive leadership. Her journey demonstrates how lived experience, combined with determination and collective action, can drive meaningful policy and social change. She continues to inspire and pave the way for a more inclusive future where women with disabilities can fully participate and thrive.

Powered By EmbedPress

Powered By EmbedPress

Powered By EmbedPress

Today, she serves as the Executive Director of the National Union of Women with Disabilities of Rwanda (UNABU)—a strong member organization of Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA). Her story is one of  empowerment, and the belief that no woman should be left behind because of her disability.

“I did not choose disability, but I chose to act,” says Gaudence. “Every woman with a disability has potential, what she needs is opportunity.”

Under Gaudence’s leadership, UNABU has evolved into a dynamic movement promoting equality and inclusion through community empowerment and policy advocacy. The organization supports women with disabilities to access education, start businesses, and take on leadership roles in their communities. It also runs initiatives to combat gender-based violence (GBV) and to strengthen the confidence and visibility of women and girls with disabilities.

UNABU’s programs reach hundreds of women every year, offering training in entrepreneurship, rights awareness, and advocacy. Beyond individual empowerment, the organization also influences public policy working closely with government institutions and civil society to ensure that national laws and policies uphold the rights of women with disabilities.

Gaudence’s voice has reached international platforms. At the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) in New York in 2025, she spoke on DIWA’s high-level panel “Powerful Yet Overlooked: African Women, Diversity, and Inclusion in Beijing +30.” She highlighted the need for stronger collaboration between feminist and disability movements, urging global actors to move beyond tokenism toward systemic inclusion.

“Women with disabilities are not asking for sympathy—we are demanding equality,” she told the audience. “When inclusion becomes part of every agenda, every policy, and every budget, that is when justice begins.”

Gaudence connects women-led disability organizations from across the region, building solidarity and ensuring their voices are represented in continental advocacy spaces.

Her recent work also bridges gender equality and environmental justice. Through UNABU, she is championing inclusive climate action and disaster preparedness, ensuring that women with disabilities are equipped with knowledge and skills to participate in climate resilience and community leadership.

“Inclusion is about more than rights—it’s about survival and sustainability,” she reflects. “If climate change responses don’t include women with disabilities, then they’re incomplete.”

From exclusion to empowerment, Gaudence’s journey is a reminder that change begins when women with disabilities shape the narrative of their own lives. Through UNABU and DIWA, she continues to create spaces where women with disabilities not only belong—but lead, thrive, and inspire transformation across Africa.

Robinah’s journey is one of resilience, courage, and transformation. Living with a psychosocial disability herself, she turned personal experience into purpose—building Triumph Mental Health Support Uganda into a powerful voice for human rights, inclusion, and community-based mental health care. Under her leadership, the organization has created safe spaces for women and men with psychosocial disabilities to access peer support, counseling, and empowerment. It also works to challenge stigma, discrimination, and institutionalization by promoting awareness, policy reform, and survivor-led advocacy.

“We are not our diagnosis,” says Robinah. “Women with psychosocial disabilities are leaders, mothers, and agents of change. What we need is acceptance, not confinement; opportunity, not exclusion.”

As a Regional Representative of DIWA for Eastern Africa, Robinah plays a pivotal role in uniting and strengthening national networks of women with disabilities across countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. She fosters regional collaboration, supports advocacy campaigns, and represents DIWA in key regional and global policy forums.

Her advocacy has reached some of the world’s most influential spaces. In March 2025, Robinah participated in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where she was featured on several high-level panels, including DIWA’s side event titled “Powerful Yet Overlooked: African Women, Diversity, and Inclusion in Beijing +30.” Her powerful remarks centered on the need for intersectional inclusion within feminist and disability movements and for global frameworks to acknowledge the rights of women with psychosocial disabilities.

“True inclusion means recognizing that mental health is part of womanhood,” she said at CSW69. “Feminist and disability movements must work together to dismantle stigma and ensure that every woman, regardless of her disability, is seen and heard.”

Robinah also represented DIWA during the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia, where she spoke at the side event on Reparations, Intersectionality, and Justice for Women with Disabilities. There, she amplified the call for African States to adopt disability-inclusive justice mechanisms that address both historical and ongoing harms faced by women with psychosocial disabilities.

Through Triumph Mental Health Support Uganda, she continues to lead national and regional campaigns advocating for an end to forced institutionalization, involuntary treatment, and violations in psychiatric care. Her work champions community-based mental health support and survivor-led participation in reforming laws and systems in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

“Mental health inclusion is a matter of human rights and justice,” Robinah affirms. “When women with psychosocial disabilities take leadership, they help societies heal and grow.”

Robinah’s leadership continues to influence change across Eastern Africa and beyond. Through DIWA, she is helping to shape a continental movement that redefines leadership, inclusion, and justice—ensuring that no woman is left behind because of her disability or mental health condition.

“Our voices matter,” she concludes. “When women with psychosocial disabilities lead, Africa listen

In the vibrant city of Abuja, Nigeria, Patience Ogoro Dickson  stands as a beacon of leadership and hope for women and girls with disabilities across West Africa. She is the Executive Director of the Association of Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI) and serves as the Regional Representative for West Africa within Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA).

A dynamic advocate and community organizer, Patience has spent more than a decade advancing the rights of women with disabilities through advocacy, leadership development, and community empowerment. Her work bridges the local and the global—connecting grassroots realities in Nigeria to regional and international policy processes.

Under her leadership, AWWDI has implemented a wide range of initiatives addressing gender equality, disability inclusion, and climate justice. Recognizing the disproportionate impact of climate change on women with disabilities, especially those in rural communities, AWWDI launched an Inclusive Climate Action Project, which raises awareness on disaster preparedness, promotes access to climate information, and trains women with disabilities in sustainable livelihood practices such as eco-friendly crafts and small-scale agriculture.

“Climate change affects everyone, but women with disabilities are often the least informed and the most affected,” says Patience. “We are changing that by giving them a voice and a platform to act as community leaders in climate resilience.”

Beyond her work on climate action, Patience has been instrumental in promoting human rights accountability at the international level. Through AWWDI, she has contributed to UN treaty reporting processes in Geneva, particularly in relation to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Her advocacy ensures that the lived experiences of Nigerian women and girls with disabilities are reflected in global monitoring frameworks and that governments are held accountable to their commitments.

At the national level, AWWDI has led campaigns on inclusive education, economic empowerment, and ending gender-based violence (GBV) against women with disabilities. The organization has provided vocational training, entrepreneurship mentorship, and awareness programs that equip women with disabilities to lead economically independent and dignified lives.

“Our biggest barrier has never been disability itself, it’s the mindset of exclusion,” Patience reflects. “When society removes those barriers, women with disabilities can lead in every sphere, political, economic, and environmental.”

As DIWA’s Regional Representative for West Africa, Patience also plays a vital role in strengthening cross-country collaboration and solidarity among member organizations in the subregion. Through her leadership, DIWA continues to expand its regional advocacy footprint, linking national movements to continental dialogues at the African Union and United Nations levels.

“Through DIWA, we are showing that women with disabilities are not on the sidelines of change, we are driving it,” she says. “Whether in Geneva, Abuja, or Accra, our message is the same: inclusion, equality, and justice for all.”

Patience’s story is one of resilience, innovation, and purpose. Her leadership reminds Africa that inclusion is vital

The first was a side event on Reparations, Intersectionality and Justice for Women with Disabilities, hosted by DIWA in collaboration with the ACHPR Secretariat. The second was a joint side event with the African Disability Forum (ADF), Validity Foundation and Sightsavers advocating for the ratification and implementation of the African Disability Protocol (ADP).

Together, these dialogues underscored DIWA’s leadership in ensuring that Africa’s human-rights and justice frameworks fully include the voices and experiences of women and girls with disabilities.

The reparations session drew human-rights advocates, commissioners, civil-society organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to reflect on how reparative-justice processes can recognise historical and ongoing harms against women with disabilities.

“Justice for women with disabilities must go beyond compensation,” said Musola Kasaketi, Program Manager of DIWA, Zambia. “It must repair dignity, restore participation and dismantle the systemic inequalities that continue to oppress and silence us.”

Speakers from DIWA, ADF and Inclusion Africa analysed how intersectionality, the overlap of gender, disability, class and other identities, shapes women’s access to justice. They called on States to integrate disability and gender perspectives into national reparation frameworks and transitional-justice mechanisms, provide psychosocial and symbolic redress alongside financial compensation, and establish consultation mechanisms that include women with disabilities and their representative organizations.

In the second side event, DIWA joined ADF, Validity Foundation and Sightsavers to call for the accelerated ratification of the African Disability Protocol, the continent’s most comprehensive instrument on disability rights. The discussion reaffirmed that, although the ADP has entered into force, several Member States have yet to ratify or domesticate it.

“The ADP is not just another treaty; it is Africa’s own voice speaking to our realities,” Ruth stated. “Each unratified State represents a gap in justice, a silence where accountability should speak.”

Panelists highlighted findings from DIWA’s and ADF’s regional work under the SPADRA Project (Strengthening Partnerships to Advance Disability Rights in Africa), funded by SIDA and implemented with Inclusion Africa. The research identified gaps in national disability laws and stressed the importance of gender-responsive legislation aligned with the ADP.

The event concluded with a joint call to AU Member States to ratify and implement the Protocol, harmonize national laws with regional commitments and ensure the meaningful participation of women with disabilities in monitoring and reporting processes.

“Non-ratification is not a technical delay, it is a denial of justice,” Ruth added. “If Africa is serious about equality, then ratifying and implementing the ADP is not optional, it is urgent.”

Through both side events, DIWA strengthened alliances with feminist movements, OPDs and regional institutions, positioning women with disabilities at the heart of Africa’s justice and equality agenda.

“Our vision is a continent where no woman is invisible to justice,” Ruth concluded. “Reparations and inclusion must work hand-in-hand to build systems that guarantee dignity and equality for future generations.”

The workshop served as a vital platform to examine how intersecting inequalities, spanning education, employment, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and social protection, continue to affect African women, particularly those in extractive industries. Participants explored practical mechanisms to ensure that Africa’s economic transformation prioritizes equity, inclusion, and justice for women in marginalized sectors and communities.

Representing DIWA,Winnifred Namukwaya, Vice Chairperson, contributed to the discussions by highlighting the lived realities of women and girls with disabilities working or living in communities impacted by mining and other extractive activities. She underscored the need for inclusive implementation of the Maputo Protocol and the African Disability Protocol (ADP) to protect women with disabilities from exploitation, exclusion, and gender-based violence.

“Women with disabilities are often invisible in the extractive sector discourse,” said Winnifred Namukwaya. “They experience compounded discrimination, both as women and as persons with disabilities, yet their voices are rarely heard in decisions about compensation, environmental justice, or benefit-sharing. True socio-economic transformation must include them as rights holders, not afterthoughts.”

DIWA’s intervention emphasized that the lack of access to SRHR services, combined with social and economic exclusion, further deepens cycles of poverty and exploitation among women in extractive regions. The organization called for the integration of gender and disability perspectives into national policies on education, health, social protection, and employment, in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Disability inclusion is not just a development issue, it is a justice issue,” Winnifred added. “By addressing the SRHR and economic rights of women with disabilities, Africa can build fairer systems that enable every woman to live and work with dignity.”

Throughout the workshop, DIWA joined other civil society and women’s rights organizations in advocating for stronger accountability mechanisms and the establishment of a regional observatory to monitor State compliance with obligations under Articles 21 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, with particular focus on women’s socio-economic and environmental rights.

The Accra workshop concluded with a commitment by participants to enhance cross-sector collaboration and to advocate for gender-transformative policies that guarantee equitable participation, fair wages, and safe working conditions for women in extractive industries.

DIWA’s participation reaffirmed its regional leadership in connecting gender equality, disability inclusion, and economic justice, contributing to continental conversations that shape policy and accountability frameworks for women’s empowerment.