Making it work focuses on women with disabilities in order to address the steep difference in healthcare access for non-disabled women and access for male PWD compared to their female counterparts. The project piggybacks on the National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons with Disabilities especially Women and Girls with Disabilities to advocate for measures to be put in place to ensure access to health for WWD; by providing hospital facilities and diagnostic equipment that are physically accessible, appropriate and reasonable communication accommodations, healthcare professionals who are trained to serve people with disabilities, healthcare providers with the appropriate knowledge to handle disability issues and others. The policy was developed through a participatory process led by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development with strategic inputs from a broad range of stakeholders. Following the endorsement of the Policy by the Minister for Health, the National Council on Health approved the Policy in June 2018, making it a working document of the Federal Ministry of Health. This policy is the first of its kind and provides a policy and programme direction to Government, Civil Society Organisations, Development Partners and the organised Private Sector on how to deal with reproductive health concerns of persons with disabilities especially women and girls. Although the document is developed with women and girls in mind, it is important to note that male involvement including addressing reproductive health issues of men is implied and an integral part of this endeavour. Making It Work focuses on bringing this policy to life and by initiating actions to ensure that it is adopted and implemented by stakeholders across board in order to ensure increased access to health for women and girls with disabilities. This project strengthens the capacity of women and girls with disabilities to take the lead in advocating for the implementation of the policy through the provision of appropriate, accessible health-care services and will educate healthcare professionals and a wide range of health sector stakeholders’ disability inclusive service delivery as prescribed in the policy.

Advocating for the Rights of People with Disabilities 

People with disabilities (PWDs) are often excluded from the mainstream of the society and hence, may not contribute to the development of the society at all or optimally. Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) was created to provide the much-needed voice and lead a movement that champions a more organised and strategic response to disability issues with a development mindset. 

DRAC is the brainchild of Ms. Irene Ojiugo, a polio survivor who is passionate about the course of People with Disability (PWD). DRAC’s campaigns & advocacies does not end with the usual, but sometimes thread in areas that many consider unusual. Such was their interest in the sexual & reproductive health rights of women living with disabilities. In 2015, they conducted a Situation Analysis on Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services for Women and Girls with Disabilities in Nigeria and this revealed that women with disabilities experience barriers in accessing healthcare at multiple points such as– lack of accessible facilities and equipment, lack of accessible communication facilities, lack of skilled medical providers, economic barriers to obtain needed services, negative attitude of health care workers.  

One of their case study was Martha, a young girl with hearing impairment who had no knowledge of her SRHR and found it difficult to communicate with health personnel when she visits the hospitals.  She shared a time she had an infection and kept hiding it because going to the hospital for treatment means her interpreter will have to know, which is something she did not want for the fear of stigma and discrimination. She managed the infection by self-medicating and after a month the infection reoccurred and this time it was worse, and she was forced to face the difficulty of having to share this with the doctor through her interpreter.  

Nigeria has a National Policy on Sexual & Reproductive Rights of Persons with Disability, which is yet to be implemented. Looking at the situation of women with disability and this laudable policy document, DRAC came up with the ‘Making it Work’ project which aims at campaigning for effective implementation of the policy, focusing on women & girls within the community. Apart from creating awareness on the policy, the project also focused on capacity building for the rightsholders, to understand their sexual and reproductive health rights, and to join the campaign for effective implementation of the policy at varied levels. 

The campaign have been able to empower women & girls from the disability community on their body, their reproductive health rights and on advocacy skills. They are now bold to express themselves and demand for privacy where necessary. Martha is currently making impact within the disability community with the knowledge she gained under the project. She started a school project under which she is training students with disabilities and distributing sanitary pads in various special / inclusive schoolswhile advocating to school authorities to improve SRHR services for students with disabilities within their learning environment 

DRAC has learned through the project that when young women and girls with disabilities are empowered with knowledge and skills, they become better advocates for their issues. They would like to see the advocacy trickle down to community level where a lot of women and girls with disabilities are still facing discrimination and marginalization in accessing SRHR services. 

National Policy on SRHR of PWDs is yet to be adopted and implemented in many states even though it is a working document of the Federal Ministry of Health; DRAC would therefore like to continue advocacy efforts until all States adopt the policy.