On September 20th, 2018, NUDOR and its members organizations in good partnership with VSO Rwanda and Palladium group organized one day workshop to get known a second phase joint partnership project Inclusive Rwanda for Persons With Disabilities (IRPWD) “IKIRARO” and setting up plan and strategies to implement the project.
VSO representative, Bonny welcomed everyone present and thanked all for coming to the planning workshop. He ran through the Agenda of the day and it was adopted unanimously.
NUDOR Board member, Rose, made opening remarks and welcomed all present to the workshop. She stressed that it was such an honour for NUDOR with the support of VSO to have implemented phase one (VUP) of the IKIRARO project and were looking forward to a fruitful phase two (CBHI) of the same project. She urged participants to actively participate as this was key to the success of the project, thereby positively impacting on the lives of persons with disabilities at large.
Mrs Rose UMUTESI during her opening remarks
Different presentations made by VSO, and NUDOR representatives but before that, participants have been asked to make a recap of phase one which ended in February 2018. The recap was as follows and participants present concurred with it:
- Training activities were done.
- Assessment on the living conditions of persons with disabilities was also carried out.
- It was found out that persons with disabilities were not very much supported as expected by the project.
- Some of the persons with disabilities were denied some of the services.
One of the key project outcomes which sought to increase the policy engagement by the disability movement, envisaged to increase the capacity in the disability movement at national and local level for representation and evidence generation as well we increased use of evidence by the disability movement for policy engagement Phase one ran from January 2017 to February 2018.
The participants appreciated the presentation, though some had questions for clarity, and some had comments. The following were recorded:
A question was posed on the selection criteria of beneficiaries as most persons with severe disabilities were said to have been left out. Selection committees in all the participating districts were set. And as this was a pilot project, it was not possible for everyone to be included. Categorization used on VUP was and is still the same that was and will be used for CBHI.
Participants asked different questions on the joint project
In ending the session, VSO representative Mrs. Sarah added that the government’s commitment made during the 2018 Global Summit on Disability is to a greater extent strengthening the project and creating more spaces and opportunities which the disability movement needs to take advantage of and explore through active involvement.
NUDOR representative, Mr. Claude SURWUMWE the IRPWD Project Manager in NUDOR made the presentation. In his presentation, he flagged out the three sectors which phase two would concentrate on and these included implementation of the VUP Issue Action Strategy, implementation of CBHI and to look at the cross cutting activities.
IRPWD Project Manager Mr. Jean Claude SURWUMWE during his presentation
After presentations, deliberations (Decisions) were made.
Sarah thanked all participants present for their live deliberations and expressed her gratitude on hearing the recap of the first phase as an indication that individuals were following and participating fully in the project.
NUDOR Board member, Mrs. Rose UMUTESI, further thanked everyone for their time and rich contributions made during the workshop. She emphasised that all these efforts would not be in vain, but contribute towards the change that we (persons with disabilities) want. She extended her thanks to VSO for their untiring support in the fighting for the rights of persons with disabilities. She also called upon the project beneficiaries to be visible in order to tell a story. “Disability movement at large must own the process and the ownership must not be short – lived, but continue”, said Ruth, in ending her vote of thanks.
