Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been cooperating with National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) to advocate the rights of PWD in Rwanda since February 2015.

JICA has played a key role in improving the lives of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Rwanda for years by empowering them with skills through a technical cooperation project that was implemented from March 2011 to 2014.

After the civil wars and the 1994 genocide, many Rwandan survivors including ex-combatants were permanently disabled. Through the trainings, PWD acquire new skills that allow them to find jobs and contribute to community development.

Led by Takashi Shimizu, JICA Advisor to NCPD, The Agency jointly organized a series of regional workshops in March and August last year involving representatives of national councils of/for PWD in East Africa. Owing to the effort, regional network for disability inclusion in East Africa was created and the participants could draft a joint statement for promoting disability-inclusive development to heads of states.

Besides the regional cooperation, Shimizu has also worked on building a cooperation framework between local authorities and PWD in the community. He conducted workshops for Disability Mainstreaming Officers in District Offices and NCPD District Coordinators in order to let them set a joint action commitment by districts. As a result, 16 district teams successfully implemented their commitments.

Among the 16 districts, Ngoma, Rulindo and Gisagara teams could summarize a brief list of Children with Disabilities (CWD) out of school and the achievement made Shimizu decide to utilize the local PWD’s network in the community for advocating CWD. In May 2016, NCPD and JICA started conducting a survey on CWD out of school and advocacy activities in the community implemented by local PWD.

In terms of findings, he survey revealed detailed information of six hundred and thirty seven (637) CWD out of school in the three districts.

Information was collected by local PWD through visiting households with CWD, conducting meetings with their parents, working with local churches and authorities in sectors and cells.

According to the result, poverty, severe impairments, teachers not equipped on how to support CWD and lack of disability friendly facilities including toilets were identified as the most leading reasons why CWD are out of school.

Other challenges included bullying by fellow children who caused them to lack confidence to go to school, parents assigning the children domestic work and in some cases schools refusing to accept CWD.

The result of the survey also points out gender issues in the disability sector.

According to the report, fewer girls, 253 were interviewed during the survey compared to boys 369. Moreover, a bigger percentage of CWD who face bullying at school, are female.

These figures suggested that girls with disabilities in Rwanda face multi- discrimination both as females and as a PWD.

"This issue should be looked into and advocacy for girls’ rights need to be observed starting at the grassroots level,” said Shimizu.

It was also found out that mothers accounted for 73% of the main care takers of the CWD compared to the fathers at 30% and community members accounting for 3%.

At the launch of the "Children with Disabilities out of school” report on February 8, Shimizu urged for more involvement of fathers and people in communities in taking care of children with disabilities.

In an effort to resolve some of the challenges faced by CWD, including lack of facilities like toilets in school, a model toilet which is accessible and affordable was constructed at Home de la Vierge des Pauvres (HVP) Gatagara in Gikondo to serve as an example for all the schools and communities.

According to interviews conducted with school heads, many local schools showed concern on modification of school facilities since school budgets are limited. However, after sensitization, Gisagara and Ngoma District Offices agreed to promote accessible and affordable facilities at school.

After confirming the data of the CWD, Shimizu has supported local PWD to work with local schools and local authorities. Through the activities, most of Sector Education Officers in the districts have been sensitized and are more aware of importance of supporting CWD out of school.

In January 2017 during the last meetings in the districts, it was confirmed by local authorities that 253 CWD who were out of school got registered to the 2017 school year.

"This is one of the most significant achievements since I came to Rwanda because the exceptional output is achieved by the effort of PWD themselves and local communities. We should not wait for something from outside, there is always a path we can create by ourselves” said Shimizu.

During his assignment, Shimizu has also tried to expand job opportunity for PWD by working with local industry. He organized an On-the-Job training program for students with hearing impairments at Huye Mountain Coffee. With the successful experience, Disability Inclusive Business Seminar was held in November 2016 and Shimizu called for the Rwandan coffee industry to promote Inclusive Business for creating value-added Rwandan products and an inclusive society.

Owing to the effort, currently 17 coffee washing stations have committed to providing jobs to PWD.

Another underlying issue that was found out in the disability sector was lack of information-sharing.

Due to insufficient communication, outputs of stakeholders’ effort had not been effectively shared to all stakeholders. A better coordination among stakeholders was required for the sector to advocate for the rights of PWD in an efficient manner.

To resolve the problem, NCPD and JICA hosted a competition among young ICT technicians to develop Resource Map, an online portal to help people easily access information concerning PWD in Rwanda with support of ICT sector advisor from JICA worked with ICT chamber.

(http://resourcemap.rw) The winners of the competition got the opportunity to build the website.

The system will help anyone in need of any information about PWD to access it more easily, register for the help wish to render, and also PWD will be able to access the website and identify any organizations or people they can approach for help.

"Some PWD do not know who to approach for help when faced with issues for example some cannot afford to buy equipment like a wheel chair, walking stick for the blind and many others. With the Resource Map, they can be able to visit the website and search for organizations or people that can render such help, or leave there their requests for anyone to read,” says Emmanuel Ndayisba, the Executive Secretary, NCPD during a launch of the Resource Map at Umubano Hotel on February 7.

Ndayisaba also commended JICA for its contribution in the ICT sector in Rwanda through such innovations, which he said make PWD feel accepted and useful in society.

With Resource Map, PWD will no longer need to make unnecessary movements as service providers would be ready to locate them.

Tomonori Nagase, senior representative of JICA in Rwanda at the launch of the resource map said that the system will be able to address many challenges and promote the rights of PWD through easy access to information.

NCPD and Tumba College of Technology, which has been supported by JICA, are discussing technical cooperation for maintaining and improving the system for effective and efficient use, according to officials.

Shimizu will complete his assignment soon and leaves Rwanda on 22nd February. He believes that NCPD succeeds and scales up the legacies.

"We really appreciate JICA dispatching Takashi to NCPD, we have worked together and achieved a lot since February 2015. We already set our commitments how to continue his activities. JICA is one of the most important partners for us and we hope the cooperation goes on to advocate the rights of PWD in Rwanda” said Ndayisaba.

Refer to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) policy, it clarified the needs of PWD inclusive development and we have to take into account the points of view of inclusiveness of PWD in planning of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and development policies in various sectors. JICA assumes PWD not only as beneficiaries of development but also as important actors of inclusive development. Keeping this belief in mind, JICA is planning and conducting many projects in all over the world.