https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/blog/drgfellows2022
The OPD Fellows support the DRG in building effective linkages between humanitarian and disability movement, strengthening networks and community of practice as well as contextualising training materials to regional contexts.
The fellows bring together a mixture of experience, skills, and background and a common objective of promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action.
This fellowship is possible thanks to the grant the DRG received from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement the project ‘Capacity building of OPDs - strengthening disability inclusive humanitarian action’, which aims at contributing to ensuring the active participation, coordination, and meaningful consultation of organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in humanitarian action.
Below are their profiles.
1. Rokiatou Diakite
Country: Bamako, Mali
Organisation: West African Federation of Associations of Disabled Persons (FOAPH)
Rokiatou is a DRG Fellow on the inclusion of people with disabilities in humanitarian action in Francophone Africa.
She is an expert on Gender, Disability and Inclusion issues and a member of the Steering Committee on GBV - UNFPA.
She is the Chairperson of the Global Movement of Pan-African Women Leaders (MMFLP).
She is a Bridge CRPD-SDGs lead trainer who contributed to parallel reports to the UN Systems on women and girls with disabilities.
She is involved in many initiatives related to Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for persons with disabilities in the West African French-speaking region.
She has extensive experience with the climate change impact on the lives of persons with disabilities in Mali and the rural exodus which stems from these displacements.
She is the editor of the Proadiph Portal.
2. Dulamsuren Jigjid
Country: Mongolia
Organisation: Culture Centre for the Deaf (CCD).
Duya is a deaf human rights activist based in Mongolia.
She obtained a Master of Arts (M.A) degree in Cultural Studies from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in 2012 and an advanced master's level course from the Freie Universität Berlin and Institut für Kultur und Medienwirtschaft (IKMW) in Berlin, Germany in 2019.
Prior to joining DRG Fellowship, Duya held various roles in human rights-related advisory organisations in Mongolia and beyond; including being an Independent Board Member of the CBM Global Disability Inclusion, serving as a Board Member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Vice President of the Mongolian National Association of the Deaf (MNAD), and Executive Director of the Culture Centre for the Deaf (CCD).
She has experience as a co-facilitator of the IDA-IDDC Bridge CRPD-SDGs Training.
She has a strong focus on Human rights and Multicultural Affairs and works passionately on building productive relationships between communities and cultures.
Duya spearheaded the involvement of DPOs in Mongolia in the global Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) agenda by engaging persons with disabilities through Stakeholder Groups of Persons in the Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR in 2017.
3. George Khoury
Country: Lebanon, Middle East
Organisation: National Association for the Rights of Disabled People (NARD) in Lebanon.
George is a disability activist defending the rights of persons with disabilities and advocating Lebanese and Arab authorities to realise the rights enshrined by the CRPD.
He was part of the consultation of the IASC Task Team on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action: MENA Regional Consultation, in 2018.
George participated in the Bridge CRPD-SDGs Module 3 on the Article 11 of the CRPD, in 2019. He has been working with Humanity and Inclusion (HI) on the situations of refugees with disabilities and actively engaged with refugees with disabilities throughout the MENA region.
In 2019, on behalf of the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities, he was the lead discussant in the first plenary session of the High-Level Policy Forum, in New York.
In 2020, George and others produced the Arab SDGs Disability Report.
4. Juan Cobeñas
Country: Argentina
Organisation: Asociacion Azul
Juan is an expert in cognitive accessibility, plain language and easy-to-read. He has provided several trainings on the CRPD and inclusive education for persons with disabilities, families, and personal assistants.
He has worked for the implementation of the CRPD, specifically on Articles 24 and 19, as well as for the implementation of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for accessibility to communication and information.
Juan is a member of the Latino-American movement of Independent Living, RELAVIN.
During COVID-19 Pandemic, they participated in demanding respect for the right of persons with disabilities to communicate and receive information in accessible ways and formats during emergencies.
5. Mauot Luis Alier Anyang
Country: South Sudan
Organisation: South Sudan Association of the Visually Impaired (SSAVI)
Mauot is the Chairperson of the South Sudan Association of the Visually Impaired and a former fellow of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
Mauot is a lawyer by profession and has been a member of the South Sudan Advocacy Task Team for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other laws and the formulation of policies at the national level.
He has worked with the Inclusive Humanitarian Action Program of Humanity and Inclusion (HI) under Mental Health and Psychosocial Support and Inclusive Humanitarian Action project. community-based inclusive development of the Organization of Volunteers for International Cooperation.
He has facilitated various computer training programs for the blind in South Sudan and has been involved in various advocacy and capacity-building programs on the inclusion of persons with disabilities conducted by NGOs, government and UN agencies.
He is fluent in English and Arabic, and intermediate in French.
6. Genarius Ernest Gaisha
Country: Tanzania
Organisation: Youth with Disabilities Organization (YoWDO)
Genarius has over three years of experience in the disability sector.
He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and is an alumnus of Bridge CRPD-SDGs Tanzania and its ToT.
While working with Light for the World, he participated in translating the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action Guidelines into Swahili.
He is a disability inclusion facilitator including in disability-inclusive humanitarian action.
Genarius is passionate about promoting disability inclusion and youth empowerment.
IDA, UNICEF and CBM Global, through the Reference Group on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (DRG), are proud to introduce some of the 2022-23 cohort of the DRG Fellowship program 2022/23.
The OPD Fellows support the DRG in building effective linkages between humanitarians and disability movement, strengthening networks and community of practice as well as contextualising training materials to regional contexts.
The fellows bring together a mixture of experience, skills, and background and a common objective of promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action.
This fellowship is possible thanks to the grant the DRG received from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement the project ‘Capacity building of OPDs - strengthening disability inclusive humanitarian action’, which aims at contributing to ensuring the active participation, coordination, and meaningful consultation of organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in humanitarian action.
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