Staff of Plan International build Capacity on Disability Inclusion
Some 42 staff from Plan International have developed their capacities in disability mainstreaming. This was during a 2-day training organized by the SEEPD Program of the CBC Health Services in response to a request from Plan International to provide capacity building for its staff on Disability and Inclusion. The workshop which recently took place at the Baptist Center Nkwen Bamenda brought together two categories of staff from Plan involved in different project orientations within the organization; the Monitoring and Evaluation staff and staff of the SIDA-Hum Project.
According to the SEEPD Program Officer and lead facilitator of the workshop, Lohshie Eugene, the objective of the workshop was to build the capacity of the designated staff of Plan International on disability mainstreaming and the collection, management, and reporting of disability disaggregated data. He expatiated that with the design of the current phase of the SEEPD Program and with the present situation of the Northwest Region in humanitarian crisis, there is a need to support humanitarian organizations working in the field to ensure humanitarian actions are tailored to meet involved persons with disabilities.
For 2 days, the two groups of participants were trained on Understanding disability as an evolving concept, Barriers to inclusion, Models of disability, Legal framework promoting inclusion in Cameroon, Gender and safeguarding, and Washington Group Short Set Questions.
Exposing participants to the 2010 law on the rights of persons with disabilities and the CRPD, Asheri Ngah noted that it is an advocacy tool especially for organizations seeking to promote inclusion. It is a tool also used to hold the organizations accountable as duty bearers and service providers to be inclusive in their approach so that the law will not be used against them. Thus, she encouraged the participants to ensure that they use the law in their interventions and for the benefit of the population knowing that they are working in accordance to the law.
On his part, Lohshie Eugene schooled participants on disability related concepts, which gave participants a broader understanding of disability and impairment as well as barriers to inclusion, highlighting that, they must be intentional in putting strategies in place to break those barriers to promote inclusion in their interventions. Tina Ashiyo in her presentation called on them to respect the right-based approach to disability inclusion and be sensitive and intentional in identifying the needs of persons with disabilities.
Participants also acquired skills in Gender and Safeguarding with a focus on how to respond, report, and prevent child abuse cases and gender-based violence as field staff. Achateseh Godswill took participants through an elaborate session on the use of the Washington set short of questions. The presentation had as objective to ensure participants understand the need to reflect on access to various services by people with disabilities in all program-level reports.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, the Project Coordinator of SIDA-HUM Project expressed gratitude to the SEEPD Program for always being available to provide capacity building in very relevant areas of their work as Plan International. Ben Gaille charged the participants to use the knowledge gained in approaching their work. She testified that the past workshops have been very useful to Plan International staff in making their interventions inclusive.
The SEEPD Program Manager, Awa Jacques Chirac underlined the willingness and availability of the SEEPD Program to continue such partnerships which ensure disability mainstream in community actions.
The SEEPD Program implements this activity with support from the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program.
