34 chapter 2: Organizing for disability-friendly health care
Breaking barriers in Nigeria
Ekaete Judith Umoh is from the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria and is a
polio survivor. Today, she is sometimes called “Mama Mainstream,” because
of her insistence that all health care programs include girls and women with
disabilities at every step of program planning and services. “She who wears
the shoe knows where it hurts the most,” Ekaete says. “We are women and
entitled to whatever services are provided for other women in the society.”
In 2000, Ekaete founded the Family-Centered Initiative for Challenged
Persons (FACICP), a non-governmental organization that works to ensure
that the rights and needs of disabled people, especially women and girls,
are respected in all health care and development programs. Ekaete describes
FACICP’s Health Care Without Barriers Project: “The aim of the project is to
make reproductive health care services, including information on HIV/AIDS,
We are women and
entitled to whatever
services are provided
accessible to women with disabilities. We are in the process
of translating simple reproductive health information
into Braille for blind women, and we now hold monthly
for other women in the
society.
meetings to discuss sexuality education, especially as it
relates to pregnancy, parenting, and disability.”
FACICP also works in partnership with the
Society for Family Health (SFH), an organization
that provides health education about a wide
range of women’s health issues. “SFH agreed to
invite us to any training program or workshop
they conduct to further raise awareness of the
health needs of women with disabilities,” Ekaete
told us. FACICP works with SFH to make sure workshops are held in
places with access for wheelchairs and that sign language interpretation is
provided, so deaf women can fully participate. With SFH training, disabled
women can become family health educators in their communities.
Ekaete and her colleagues are also challenging governments, multilateral
organizations, and civil society to begin using a “disability lens” in all
their development work. They have proposed, for example, that World
Bank-funded projects include people with disabilities in training, technical
assistance, consultations, project funding, and distribution of material
resources. This will ensure that the health rights and needs of people with
disabilities are always in focus and not forgotten. As Ekaete reminds us,
“People with disabilities are everywhere, entitled to the same rights and
privileges enjoyed by the citizens of any community.”
A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities 2007