Meeting the Leadership Challenges of Women with Disabilities: Mobility International USA

By Cindy Lewis, Mobility International USA

MDG #3:  Promote gender equality and empower women.

Since 1981, Mobility International USA (MIUSA) has collaborated with women with disabilities from every region of the world through international exchange programs emphasizing leadership training and disability rights. MIUSA specializes in leadership programs for women with disabilities, including the International Symposium on Issues of Women with Disabilities preceding the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), the International Symposium on Microcredit by and for Women with Disabilities (1998), Global Options for Women with Disabilities in Leadership and Employment (2000), and Loud, Proud and Prosperous®: Microcredit By and For Women with Disabilities in Southern Africa (2000-2003). MIUSA’s three International Women’s Institutes on Leadership and Disability (1997,2003 and 2006) included women from Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Gambia, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Mali, Malaysia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, West Bank/Gaza, Pakistan, Panama, Palau, the Philippines, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the U.S.

Women’s Institutes on Leadership and Disability (WILD)

“Before I came to the WILD program, I thought, I really want to change the world.  After the WILD program, I think, I really can do it. This conference taught me how to be Loud, Proud, and Passionate ^®.”  WILD participant.

MIUSA’s women’s leadership programs are guided by lessons learned from women with disabilities over the past 25 years:

• Women and girls with disabilities experience challenges to leadership and leadership development based on gender and disability-based discrimination.
• In spite of obstacles, women with disabilities around the world are nevertheless taking leadership: directing organizations, running businesses, heading families, assuming political offices and advocating for their rights.
• Hands-on experiences of inclusion and accessibility are powerful catalysts for strengthening leadership capacity of women with disabilities. New experiences create visions; visions spark ideas that become action for change and empowerment.
• Women with disabilities gain valuable insights by sharing the challenges and solutions lived by women from diverse circumstances. International, cross-disability, cross-cultural exchange programs offer a rich pool of resources for learning and creating solutions. 

MIUSA’s WILD programs are built around MIUSA’s trademark curriculum, a combination of practical workshops with dynamic, hands-on activities. WILD participants share experiences, advice and ideas in workshops on such issues as microenterprise, education and literacy, violence prevention, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, and to develop skills such as proposal writing and use of the media.  Challenge and cultural activities provide opportunities for risk taking, team building, leadership practice and development of “disability pride”. Each participant creates individual as well as collaborative action plans to address issues of women with disabilities in their home communities.

“When we began our women’s programs, there were so few women with disabilities in leadership positions,” said Susan Sygall, MIUSA CEO. “In 1997, WILD participants were just beginning to see the potential of women with disabilities, of themselves, as leaders. The discussions at that time were about how to start disabled women’s groups, whether and how to break away from disability organizations that were completely controlled by men. We focused on basic leadership skills, looking for solutions and developing confidence and pride in ourselves as women with disabilities.”

Over the years, the experience and leadership needs of the participants had shifted.  “Now, WILD women already understand the importance of leadership and women’s solidarity, and they are more confident in their skills.  Their concerns today are practical: how to tap into the development programs that are working – but not including women with disabilities– in their communities, to address the survival issues of women with disabilities: poverty, lack of education, violence, disease,” said Sygall.

Gender, Disability and Development Institute

“I’ve learned there are ways in which you can approach international development organizations.  You have to be sure when you go that you know what you’re about and that you have a message to present to them with specific goals and plans.  Whatever you want, you must always keep to the point.  If you go in for a particular issue they might want to talk about your disability [instead], so you have to be sure you don’t stay on that issue.  So those are some skills that I know in how to go about talking to those NGOs. - WILD delegate from Guyana

During WILD 2003 and WILD 2006, representatives of leading US-based international development organizations joined WILD participants for a five-day Gender, Disability and Development Institute (GDDI), coordinated by MIUSA. During this intensive "think tank", WILD women and international development professionals worked together to identify issues that impact participation of women with disabilities in development efforts, strategize solutions and create collaborative plans to promote inclusion of women with disabilities in development programs. International development organizations at the 2003 and/or 2006 GDDI included Mercy Corps, American Friends Service Committee, Trickle Up Program, Holt International, CBM, the Association for the Rights of Women in Development (AWID), the Global Fund for Women, Women Pushing Forward, Whirlwind Wheelchair International and the Hesperian Foundation.

Important outcomes of the GDDI activities include new avenues of communication and relationships between disabled women leaders and development professionals.  All participants agreed that disabled women’s organizations often do not have experience or information necessary to effectively approach development NGOs, while NGOs are not equipped with accurate information about the issues and capacity of disabled women to respond effectively.   Formal GDDI activities provided opportunities for participants on both sides to identify common interests, to gain insight into different perspectives, and to more accurately understand the constraints, goals and resources of women with disabilities and development program implementers.

GDDI participants met over the course of the Institute in sector-specific work groups, to articulate issues, identify obstacles and generate strategies to ensure that women with disabilities are included and more effectively served in micro finance, health, education, civil society, and refugee assistance programs. In one particularly powerful exercise, WILD women were assigned the roles of development organization staff, while development professionals played leaders of disability organizations. Each side presented and deliberated requests form the other, for inclusion, funding, assistance with outreach, etc.  WILD women and participants from development organizations each recounted valuable and often surprising insights gained from the exercise, including feedback on how they are perceived by the other side.

Sharing of unstructured time also gave all participants unprecedented opportunities to establish relationships and deepen the dialogues begun in structured seminars. Relaxed, informal settings, small group activities and opportunities for individual consultations resulted in personalized advice and enabled delegates to make connections with people who hold potential for valuable information and resources.  Simple adaptations made by the owners of the rustic retreat center where the GDDI took place, such as small homemade ramps, a bathroom door replaced by a curtain, and a mattress raised by boards, were also eye opening for all participants.

While discussion focused on how development organizations can reach out and make programs accessible to women with disabilities, Susan Sygall, MIUSA CEO, also urged women with disabilities to take initiative by reaching out to international development organizations in their communities.  A brainstorming session on recommendations for disability-led organizations to approach more effectively development NGOs incorporated suggestions from development professionals and WILD women.  These included:

• Do your homework.  Know the goals and mission of the development organization, and be sure that your request is compatible with that mission. Be able to explain how your organization’s goals fit with the overall mission of the development organization. Learn the development vocabulary used by the organization, and use it.
• Be prepared to explain the mission of your organization and the key points of your request as concisely as possible.  Practice expressing your main idea in one sentence, then making a brief explanation of your idea. 
• Be specific about exactly what your organization wants from the international development organization.  For example, “we want women with disabilities to participate in your microcredit program” is more effective than “women with disabilities need economic empowerment.”
• Be prepared to counter stereotypes about women with disabilities. Emphasize the capabilities of women with disabilities rather than focusing only on their problems.  Emphasize that women with disabilities are not interested in handouts, but want the opportunity to show what they are capable of.
• Be polite, positive and persistent.  If an international development organization is resistant on the first approach, try again (and again!).
• Make an offer. Ask how you can assist the organization, for example with recruitment efforts, ideas and contacts for making adaptations, accessible meeting space, etc., or in some other way support the NGO in meeting its goals.

Results

“I am now better equipped to approach any international development organization without any form of intimidation and to discuss the rights of women with disabilities with them.” -- WILD delegate

The impact of MIUSA women’s leadership programs is clear.  MIUSA’s women’s program alumni today include a government Minister and an elected representative to national Parliament; founders, directors and officers of national and international organizations; Fulbright scholars and Fellowship recipients. MIUSA’s alumni have created opportunities for countless other women with disabilities, initiating microcredit programs, business training, health projects, accessible transportation systems, and empowerment programs for disabled girls.  Our alumni from all over the world credit MIUSA women’s leadership programs with giving them the skills, resources and confidence to step up as leaders in their communities and countries.

 Our development program partners have also been impacted.  One participant reports that her experience at the Institute has led her to change the focus of development projects involving people with disabilities from “provision of care services” to “services to promote rights and empowerment.” Another organization reports that the experience of working side by side with blind women made her understand very concretely what had previously been an abstract concept: the need for accessible format materials. All NGO participants noted that the opportunity to spend time with disabled women as colleagues had brought home the importance of providing access and all have incorporated accessibility considerations into the regular project planning process.

As an organization, MIUSA has also greatly benefited from the WILD trainings. By bringing women together, MIUSA learns from the experts about the critical, real life issues that affect women with disabilities, and so is better prepared to advocate and provide technical assistance and information to promote inclusive development practice.  “WILD helps us learn concretely what we often talk about in theory,” said Sygall.  “We are able to speak more accurately about the issues that women face throughout the world. In the same way, listening to dialogues between women with disabilities and development practitioners has enabled us to understand more practically the kind of issues that development organizations face as they work to include women with disabilities.”

The WILD program can be adapted and replicated anywhere in the world, by bringing cross-disability groups of women together to build confidence and skills as leaders, facilitating discussions between disabled women and development organizations, and focusing on solutions.  “We want other people to do this,” said Sygall. “We encourage our WILD participants to take our framework and adapt it to work in their own community.  Or make up something new – anything that works to tap into the power of women with disabilities to contribute to international development.”

For more information and resources by MIUSA, including Loud, Proud and Passionate®: Including Women with Disabilities in International Development Programs; Loud, Proud and Passionate® Video (available in open-captioned format and in English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and French); and Loud, Proud and Prosperous®: A Video Documentary (available in open-captioned format and in English, Spanish, French and Arabic), as well as recommendations for women with disabilities and international development organizations for inclusive development programs, see MIUSA’s website (www.miusa.org).

Contact:

Mobility International USA
132 E. Broadway, Suite 343
Eugene, OR   97401 USA 
Voice/TTY: (541) 343-1284
Fax: (541) 343-6812
Email: development@miusa.org
Web: www.miusa.org