The ‘Leadership Skills Program for Women with Disabilities’ holds its fourth and fifth sessions in Ethiopia

On 27 and 28 January 2021, Bridging the Gap held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) the fourth and fifth sessions of the Leadership Skills Program for Women with Disabilities, which aims to contribute to the empowerment of women with disabilities and to make the Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) gender-sensitive.

This programme, started in October 2010 and interrupted in March 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic, includes different sessions addressing different topics related to women’s empowerment. On these occasions, the topics tacked were “Reproductive health rights” on 27th and “Leadership and the role of women with disabilities in decision-making” on 28th.

These sessions were attended by 10 women with different disabilities from the Amhara and Somali regions, selected by the Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association (EWDNA) and the Addis Ababa University Disability Directorate. In each session, the participants worked on aspects such as regaining self-confidence, transferring knowledge and skills, developing communication skills and training and preparing for future leadership status, among others.

The leadership development intervention is carried out through planned learning spaces and knowledge transfer, including organised field visits to different institutions, exchange of experiences between women leaders with and without disabilities, and meetings with motivational speakers and role models. It will also create a repository of information and resources to be used in future advocacy work.