The training workshop for Youths with Disabilities affiliated with the Na on Using Online Media to advance Disability Mainstreaming was held in Namibia from 20 to 22 August 2018 at Avani Hotel, Windhoek, Namibia.
Organized by the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD), the training workshop was part of the regional youth program that aimed at imparting skills in using the WordPress website, Blog and other social media to advance the disability mainstreaming agenda in countries where SAFOD works.
The facilitators from THISABILITY Newspaper trained the targeted youths on integrating issues/stories on inclusive education, SRHR, etc., into the whole mainstreaming agenda using the aforementioned online tools. they were empowered with skills on incorporating different aspects of disability rights within the broader realm of disability mainstreaming.
Specific objectives of the training workshop were to familiarize the participants with the WordPress platform; impart basic skills in managing a WordPress site; orient participants on the basic concepts of disability mainstreaming; orient selected youths with disabilities on integrating different aspects of disability rights into the disability mainstreaming agenda and train the selected youths with disabilities on basic writing and journalism tools with a focus on BLOGGING and social media.
The workshop used diverse methodologies and approaches to accommodate the youths with diverse types of disabilities. The methodologies were in the form of presentations, group work, plenary discussions and sharing of experiences through open talks.
The presentations and plenary discussions also focused on writing and publishing the stories/articles, case studies, etc. on the new website (thus website) which was created as part of the project, and on other social media such as the Facebook page.
SAFOD’s sponsorship of the training is part of the Organisational Development in Southern Africa Project funded by Norwegian Federation of Organisations of Disabled People (FFO), guided by a three-year partnership agreement to contribute to organisation development and Human Rights training that empowers its partner organizations. FFO’s partner organizations, such as SAFOD, contribute to change in attitude towards persons with disabilities in society in general, in governments and other spheres. Under the Results Framework (2016-2019) of the FFO/SAFOD Agreement, one of the three key targets for 2019 is that Youths in SAFOD affiliates lobby within SAFOD countries for the human rights of young people with disabilities. And the Results Framework identifies communication and advocacy as one of the key areas in which the youths with disabilities require significant capacity building, hence one of the output indicators include “number of SAFOD youths that have been trained on communication and advocacy skills.”
While the SAFOD Secretariat used FFO fundigto organize the training workshop, the domain name and hosting package for the NFPDN website was bought with a donation from Stine Braathen and Morten Eriksen from Norway.