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PARTNERSHIP FOR THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES

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 This piece was published in June 2018 on Perspectives of The Himalayan Times.

You can find the full text here: Partnerships for the rights of youths with disabilities | Sharing4good

The 3rd Edition of the Turkish Airlines ENGAGE Empowering League started on June 2nd under the motto “Fair Game for Nepal: Make disabilities rights Real”.

The initiative is really about bringing different actors together to join hands for a very important though extremely neglected cause: the promotion of the new Disability Rights Act.

Promoting such a big cause can only be pursued through effective partnerships and collaborations and there are so many ways to initiate a collaborative for universal, cross cutting causes like social inclusion and disabilities rights.

That’s the reason why ENGAGE has been promoting the concept of “Out Reach Partner” since the 2nd edition of the League.

In short an Out Reach Partner is an organization, not for profit but potentially also for profit that decides to advance disability rights by raising the visibility and profile of the League.

The League is pitching a very clear message: disability rights matter not only to persons with disabilities and their families but to overall society.

Despite the Out Reach Partners are involved in a great variety of activities and all have different missions and visions, they are all championing youths with disabilities, creating a new powerful link between them and their respective core “business”.

Here some examples of how they are leveraging the League to advance their causes, putting youths with disabilities at the center of their work.

Connecting vulnerable youths to the society: AYON, the biggest network of youth organizations, has the mission to promote personal development of youths, connecting them to a world of opportunities. Also thanks to the League, AYON has been pursuing a new effort in including peers with disabilities in their activities, recognizing they are one of the “hardest to reach” groups of youth.

Promotion of inclusive Learning spaces: Teach for Nepal is one of the strongest not for profit fighting for a better quality teaching in Nepal. Ensuring that children and youths with disabilities have equal access to learning opportunities has become a priority for the organization.

Promoting service starts at school: Thames International College is led by a dynamic leadership that encourages collaborations and partnerships among students and outside organizations. The first batch of ENGAGE Sport Coaches, the backbone of the League, all local youths, trained to coach the League’s teams, were all from Thames and it is great that the institution is encouraging its students to come and watch the games, an important step to make Thames a more inclusive learning space.

Achieving inclusive cross cultural understanding of the world: AIESEC Nepal, the local branch of the biggest students led not for profit, is a pioneer in running international exchange programs among youths with disabilities. For example, Bharat BC, a player of the League, had the opportunity to do an internship in Bangladesh monitoring the working conditions in the garment industry.

Promoting Personal Development for all: The Duke of Edinburgh International Award, one of the biggest not for profits focused on youths’ development, since last year has been encouraging its network of schools to host awareness programs with the teams of the League. As result of this effort, one of these schools sent over 100 students to watch the 2nd edition finals.

Spreading Reproductive health and menstrual hygiene: Marie Stopes International and its partner SPN has been doing a great effort to reach out persons with disabilities and spread its work in reproductive health and menstrual hygiene. For example, an info kiosk has been set up in most of the League’s venues to promote its latest product, the menstrual cup.

Working for structural changes in the society: The Rose International Fund for Children is an American not for profit supporting disabilities rights in Nepal. Very active in the education sector, it has been working as “knowledge bank” for the promotion of new practices on sports with children with disabilities.

As you can see, all the Out Reach Partners advance their work by supporting the League in different ways.

This approach could be used and replicated by other organizations to achieve partnership driven systematic change.

(The final games of the League will be on 30th of June at Rangashala Stadium in Tripureshor. For more information www.facebook.com/engagenepal)

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