Making It Work Forum in Nairobi: A success!

The Making It Work 3rd Gender and Disability Forum, from the 23rd to the 26th of April 2019, gathered 9 newly selected partner organizations and 26 participants in Nairobi (Kenya (3), Uganda (3), Burundi, Rwanda, Mali). Partners are all grassroots organizations, either women with disabilities' organizations or women's organizations working with women and girls with disabilities, who fight gender based violence (GBV).

Group photo of the participants to the MIW third Gender and Disbality, front row participants are holding a banner of the event

 

During four days, women leaders have gathered knowledge on prevention and response to GBV faced by women and girls with disabilities. The main working sessions have focused on the gender approach, GBV and inclusive GBV programming, male engagement, medical services to sexual violence survivors, and scaling. Participants were very involved in discussions and constructive ideas were shared around the different topics presented during the week.

The Forum had the pleasure of welcoming The Honourable Dennitah Ghati, Kenyan member of Parliament on the matter of persons with disabilities for the opening session. Partners external to the MIW team also attended and facilitated sessions, such as HI Kenya for medical services for GBV survivors and COVAW Kenya for male engagement.

The MIW Gender and Disability Forum is a space for partners to take a step back and to analyze their work. All thematic sessions have been followed by hands-on sessions while the last day of the Forum was dedicated to building a scaling action plan for each practice fighting violence against women and girls with disabilities.

For the project team, it is a great opportunity to meet and work face-to-face with all the partners who will be supported by Making It Work in the upcoming months. As expected, the Forum has been a very positive experience for both project team and participants, and should have fruitful outcomes in the future!