…set to leverage partnerships
To mark its 10th year anniversary, the Hope Inspired Foundation for Women and Youths With Disabilities(HIFWYD) held a webinar on February 27th with the aim of building stronger partnerships and collaborating with other organizations.
HIFWYD was established on 27th February, 2015 by Ejiro Sharon Okotie, and registered as an Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPD) with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Abuj. The organization was born from personal experiences of the founder, who acquired a disability at the age of 11, owing to poor medical attention and struggled with discrimination and social acceptance from the stages of being a girl to adulthood.
Speaking at the meeting, the Impact Manager of the organisation, Janet Adekunle said the organisation had worked tirelessly over the years to bring reforms and reliefs to the lives of various persons living with disabilities and she called for more people to come on board and continue the work to bring about inclusion.
“It has been a decade of unwavering and tireless dedication from everyone involved, even the volunteers. I got involved with the foundation in 2020 and since then I have witnessed the momentous and groundbreaking impact that the organization has had.
“The foundation has been involved in community engagement to deepen sexual education for women living with disabilities. We started in Lagos and then moved to other states. The pragmatic approach used by the foundation has been able to get results and ensure that bills are passed.
“The foundation has only been able to do this due to its partnership with others. No great feat can be achieved without partnership. I am looking forward to seeing what the foundation will achieve in the next ten years,” Adekunle concluded.
The Programme Manager for Disability Rights Funds, Theophilus Odaudu, while congratulating the organisation said that leveraging partnerships and collaborations would bring about better results and ensure that even people at the grassroots level get to enjoy the benefits of advocacy work.
“When you talk about partnership and collaboration, those words are loosely used and hardly practiced because of unhealthy competition. In the world today where everything is interconnected, no organisation can tackle any problems alone.
“For a huge impact to be made, organisations need partnership. Partnership is important because you need to pool together resources to make sustainable change. Partnership is hinged on three pillars; partnership with individuals that you have a shared vision with, trust and collective action and innovation.
“The passage of the disability act is an example of the power of collaboration and partnership. It took almost two decades for the bill to be passed into law in 2019. Organisations of Persons With Disabilities(OPDs) had a common goal, trusted each other to work together and then used different approaches such as peaceful protests, using allies and even adopting prayers.
“OPDs play a critical role in advocating for rights and they have to partner with others to get results. A lot of organisations have to come together, pool their resources and target a particular outcome. When OPDs unite they are able to put together strong advocacy because stakeholders are more likely to listen to more people.
“It also helps in resource sharing, expertise and best practices. If well established organizations partner with new ones, they will improve the standard of operations,” he concluded.
