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"WILD has succeeded in raising strong and dynamic women who are assertive enough to engage their community leaders to promote the issues of women and girls with disabilities in their countries. I am such an example; my level of confidence has tripled since WILD."
- Ekaete Umoh, WILD Alumna from Nigeria
To date more than 220 women with disabilities from over 83 countries have participated in MIUSA's International WILD program.
“We should not wait for what people will do for us, but we should try to create impact and make our contributions felt in society.”
– WILD-Uganda participant
Bringing together 21 women with diverse disabilities in the capital of Bangladesh, Ms. Desai shared leadership principles and practical skills to empower women with disabilities and build a network for disability advocacy. Each participant was selected based on her commitment to pursuing higher education and leadership positions in the community.
In Bangladesh, the belief still remains that women with disabilities should stay sheltered in their homes and many young women therefore have limited access to and awareness of educational and community resources.
"The right to health for women with disabilities must be respected and taken as a priority by the community and the government!"
WILD-South Sudan participant
In South Sudan, like many parts of the developing world, women and girls with disabilities have historically been denied their right to sexual and reproductive health.
"Celebrating MIUSA's Story" is a tribute to Mobility International USA's amazing accomplishments since 1981, made possible by our wonderful staff, donors, partners, host families, and alumni around the world.
This book provides an account of our signature projects and programs, upholds testimonials from individuals touched by our work, maps the origins of our hundreds of alumni, and traces a timeline of our major exchange programs, publications and other milestones.
Many factors contribute to the increased risk that people with disabilities experience for contracting HIV/AIDS, and to the fact that individuals with disabilities who also have HIV/AIDS often lack appropriate information and access to treatment. In turn, without appropriate teatment, HIV/AIDS can result in secondary disabilities. HIV/AIDS programmers should seek out training and resources to ensure their activities are disability-inclusive.
This manual is based on Mobility International USA (MIUSA)’s unique model of international leadership training, the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD). WILD began in 1997 is an outcome of the Beijing UN Women’s Conference and is held in Eugene, Oregon, USA. The WILD program offers an effective model for empowering women with disabilities to be leaders across the globe.
Empower Partnerships created 19 teams, each a triad: A U.S. organization matched with two partner organizations from another country, one disability-led and the other committed to disability inclusion.
U.S. representatives first traveled to their partners’ home countries to gain an understanding of disability access and inclusion in their communities.
Two partners from Serbia and one from the U.S. joined forces to reimagine the use of the media as a platform for disability rights advocacy. Media can be a powerful tool for empowerment. The rapidly changing media landscape gives people with disabilities the tools to tell their stories directly.
“The media have perhaps the most important role in disability advocacy,” said Jelena Jovovic of the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Novi Sad, Serbia. “We receive the majority of our information through the media and, based on this information, we form our attitudes.”
Jelena, along with Mima Ruzicic-Novkovic of Center Upright Living, a Disabled Peoples’ Organization in Novi Sad, and Beth Haller and Rhonda Greenhaw of Towson University’s Department of Mass Communication located in Maryland, USA, met in Serbia for a week to jumpstart their collaborations.
How do you describe a partnership that not only achieves its goals, but transforms the entire way in which each partner works? MIUSA's Empower Partnerships program simply calls it, “Team Macedonia.” With support from the U.S. Department of State, MIUSA brought together organizations from around the world for a new style of collaborative program designed to advance disability rights.
When asked why they had chosen to work together, the Association of Parents with Disabled Children (APDC) and All for Education! (AFE) National Civil Society Coalition made a simple but powerful prediction about their partnership: “Our voices would be louder together.” Given the challenge they faced, all their voices were needed.
Haziq sings a solo in front of his classmates at the closing ceremony of his weeklong reading camp. It’s a small crowd, and he hasn’t memorized the lyrics. Instead, Haziq is reading them from a screen at the front of the room. It may not seem like much, but to Haziq, it could be the very turning point of his life. And it took three people traveling halfway around the world and back to get him there.
Kimberly Tissot, Executive Director of Able South Carolina, heard the determination in the voices of her partners in the Dominican Republic: “We need to know how it is possible for you to be independent in the U.S., and how to make those changes here.”
Despite the pouring rain, women from all over Homa County in Western Kenya gathered in a classroom at the local college. The women came alone, or maybe with an aide, a guide or interpreter; some had a wheelchair, others crutches, but all came with a singular purpose — to learn about how to end gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities.
“Ensuring people with disabilities have access to health care in your communities largely depends on you.” This was Christiana Yaghr’s message, communicated in sign language, to 27 women with diverse disabilities in the small northern Ghanaian town of Wa. Representing regions throughout the country, many of the participants had traveled for hours to this workshop, the first of its kind, to learn not only about HIV/AIDS prevention but also about how to ensure that women with disabilities have access to services and information.