On 23rd September every year, the world commemorates the International Day of Sign Languages to celebrate the importance of sign language and highlight the unity generated by over 300 different sign languages globally. The theme this year is “A World Where Deaf People Everywhere Can Sign Anywhere!”. The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) notes that more than 70 million people in the world are deaf, with more than 80% living in developing countries. Governments, deaf communities, and civil society organizations must join efforts to raise awareness of the importance of sign languages using a human rights-based approach.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes that sign languages are equal in status to spoken languages and obligates various stakeholders to promote the learning of sign languages and their linguistic identity of the Deaf community. In the recent past, notable efforts have signified positive progress in integrating and including the Deaf community. Take a look at this story by OHCHR, which highlights how sign language leads to love and inclusion in Tunisia.
In Kenya, Lugha Ishara continues to provide tools and methods for early detection and intervention of hearing loss and language development in Deaf children. Please follow a short video about their impact featured on BBC last yearhere.
We would also like to share the video below of an insightful conversation on Spice FM about why Kenya must adopt the Sign Language Bill, which seeks to streamline Kenya Sign Language (KSL) and integrate it into the school curriculum.
In May 2023, South Africa reached a milestone decision in recognising Sign Language as an official language, a significant step towards realizing the rights of the Deaf community and promoting inclusivity. Read more about it here and watch a feature on Al Jazeera news here. South Africa is now the fourth country in Africa to recognize sign language as an official language after Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.
We close by sharing this insightful TEDx Talk by Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco, on making education accessible to deaf children below:
We hope you enjoyed the read and continue championing an inclusive world wherever you are.
In the last few weeks, the Afrikan continent, and the world as a whole, has lost two of its great souls; Ama Ata Aidoo (23 March 1942 – 31 May 2023) and Micere Githae Mugo (12 December 1942 – 30 June 2023). They were long-time friends, colleagues, age mates and, indeed, sisters, and it is poetic that they both passed within 1 month of each other. We dedicate this post to their lives, their impact and their legacies.
Starting with Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, she was a writer of novels, plays and short stories with more than 15 published books to her name. As well as writing, she was also a strong activist, feminist and pan-Africanist, and she also held the post of Minister for Education for a short period in the early 1980s. Summarising all these aspects of her life’s work, she once famously said, “for us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.”
Please also have a watch of a clip from an interview with Aidoo on BBC Hard Talk below:
Professor Micere Githae Mugo was also a renowned writer, political activist and academic. Among her work, she wrote, together with Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a celebrated play called “The Trial of Dedan Kimathi”, a response to negative propaganda about the Kenyan freedom struggle hero Dedan Kimathi, who was executed by the British colonial regime in 1957, aged only 36. Coincidentally, Kimathi’s widow, Mukami Kimathi also passed on recently and you can read more about her life here in the East African, as well as a fascinating analysis about the Scramble to own Mau Mau Memoryhere in the Elephant.
As a result of government harassment, Mugo was stripped of Kenyan citizenship by the Moi regime in the early 1980s, which she only regained in 2009. She was exiled in Zimbabawe and re-found her friend Ama Ata Aidoo there and, after about 10 years, they both moved to the USA but to different parts.
Please read some of the obituaries about Micere Mugo’s life: here in the Nation and here in Capital News and, finally, please take some time to watch a beautiful and revealing tribute to her by Ama Ata Aidoo below:
These two legends will be greatly missed across the continent and beyond; they will be remembered fondly by so many people, for their great writing, their unceasing and determined struggles for equality and social justice, and for their humanity and contributions to the development of the Afrikan continent. We leave you with a powerful quote from Ama Ata Aidoo below:
IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. IWD has been an annual event since the first gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific. Please read more about the History and Origins of IWD on wikipedia here and the timeline on the IWD website here. Further background information about IWD is included in this BBC article
This year’s theme of Embrace Equity is explained in detail here as well as in the short video clip below:
For those planning events for IWD, there are a wealth of Resources available here and you can also register your event on the website here. Please also check the database for events already registered here.
UN Women have announced their own theme for IWD, which is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” and is explained in more detail here.
Please also read more CIFOR-ICRAF’s ABCD work here and learn more about the ABCD approach here.
The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Africa Region will be holding a unique event on Wednesday 8th March called Women in Facilitation: Sharing their Stories and registration can be made here
We would like to also highlight the upcoming 4th Women in HR Convention taking place from 8th-10th March in Mombasa. The organisers of the Convention, the Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) in Kenya have defined Equity as follows:
Equity is the acknowledgment that certain advantages and barriers exist and that these barriers have prevented certain groups from involvement and advancement in many areas. Improving equity requires acknowledgment of the inequities people face and actively working to redress that imbalance.
March 8th 2022 marks the annual celebration of International Women’s Day, which began in the early part of the 20th century. If you’d like to learn more about the Day, its history and significance, please have a read of this comprehensive piece from the BBC here.
UN Women have announced their theme for 2022 as “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. Their events will also recognise how women around the world are responding to climate change. Please read UN Women’s announcement here and access their brand kit here, as well as other stories and resources here. We also recommend a very interesting interview with Ugandan climate change activist Vanessa Nakatehere, where she clearly explains the intersection between gender, race and climate justice.
The International Women’s Day website has chosen the theme #BreakTheBias and is asking people to imagine “a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination”. Please read more about the theme here and check through other parts of the website here and access resources here.
This is also a good moment to re-post Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie‘s classic TEDx talk “We should all be Feminists”, a challenge and call to action to everyone to champion gender equality. Please see the link below, listen, enjoy, laugh, cry and learn – it is truly a beautiful piece:
Please also have a read of our colleague Yash Kunte’s #MondayMorningMinute where he shares some reflections about International Women’s Day here. In his own words, he says that Gender Equality means:
Thinking beyond the binary (male / female)
Questioning assumptions
Re-setting expectations
Breaking stereotypes
Whilst there are many thousands of events taking place around the world, we would just like to highlight a few to give a flavour of the diversity of these events….
In Pakistan, on Weds 9th March, the Women for Board Allies team will be hosting a webinar with a wide range of high profile speakers, taking place from 5.00-7.00pm (Pakistan time) which you can read about and register for here. The event is organised by HR Metrics, a leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion organisation based in Pakistan and with a global reach.
A four-day bike ride is taking place in New York to mark the event, whilst women in London are gathering at Parliament Square on Tues 8th March from 2-6pm to mark a Women’s Day of Climate Action. Please also search for other events around the world here. Whatever you do, we wish you success in re-doubling your efforts to promote gender equality in your spaces and beyond.
Finally, we leave you with the words of Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize winner from D.R. Congo:
Its been an interesting few months and some of the popular terminologies we have discussed include vaccine apathy (disinterest) and vaccine inequality (WHO has called it vaccine apartheid). We will focus on the vaccine inequality – the disparity in distribution of vaccines between low income and wealthy countries. This inequality is a pointer that when all fails, we revert back to the law of the jungle! We thought to share a few articles that speak on the subject. Our position is that inclusion goes beyond the ‘isms’ and that we should all speak on this matter as within the remit of inclusion.
While some would quickly mention the issue of poor governance, corruption, and leadership (corruption has been a concern in some countries including the UKand Kenya with the emergence of COVIDPreneurs), this does not explain the inequity factor for countries who may be better governed, and the greed as some rich countries amass supplies for their current population and for future booster shots should they be required, while the pharmaceutical industry ‘plays for profit’. As always we will share a few perspectives below.
“We are free-falling into an era of unprecedented inequality, thanks in great part to the poor decisions being taken by the world’s political class. The world was already deeply unequal with poor countries carrying the lion’s share of the global disease burden with sparse resources. But despite assertions that this pandemic would be a great equaliser, it is instead turning out to be an accelerator of inequality”, she says.
She notes that billions of lives are at risk because rich countries are standing in the way of making vaccines most freely available as they hoard the supplies to cover for future possible booster shots. She ends with a call for justice …. “We cannot demand that our governments reprioritise spending towards the purchase of vaccines if there are no vaccines to buy. And we cannot save the lives that are under threat right now because of this third wave if we are only expected to wait for leftovers that are scheduled to come long after the emergency has landed”.
Rasna Warah, in her piece ‘Deconstructing Race and Gender for the Africa Traveller’ in The Elephant highlights that while the number of infections and fatalities have been low compared to other regions, the economic shock of COVID in the continent has been equally – if not more – devastating. Loss of income has already impoverished millions of Africans as lockdowns continue with new waves of the pandemic. Indeed, most countries have been at the receiving end of decisions made in other continents to stop flights to African nations, even as citizens from these countries troop into the various African countries.
Rasna also speaks on the denial of visas to Africans travelling to the EU and who have received the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute in India in her article ‘ New EU Travel regulation could exacerbate global COVID vaccine divide’. The COVID 19 vaccine certification excludes vaccines distributed by the COVAX facility that is financed by these same countries. She raises a few questions, “Will vaccinations determine who can and cannot travel? Given that less than 2 per cent of the African population is currently fully vaccinated, will this mean that the majority of Africans wishing to travel abroad will have to wait at least a year or two before they can do so? And if Covishield is not approved by the EU, does this mean that those who received two doses of the vaccine will be permanently barred from entering Europe?“
‘“WHO should not be recommending a requirement for vaccination as a condition of travel,” declared Michael Ryan, executive director of health emergencies, “and that is particularly related to the scarcity of vaccines and the fact that there is such an inequity of distribution of those vaccines – plus uncertainties regarding the extent to which vaccination prevents infection or transmission of the disease. Any imposition of such a requirement for vaccination, around the world does, in effect, deliver a double inequality as individuals from countries who have no access to vaccines will then have no access to travel, and therefore it is very important that if we’re going to impose restrictions on the travel of individuals, we must at least attempt to do that from a level playing field of having access to vaccine,” Ryan added in an article by Health Policy Watch.
An article called ‘ Vaccine Apartheid: Global Inequities in Covid-19 Vaccine Production and Distribution‘ by Jayati Ghosh in OpenGlobalRights highlights three issues, “blatant vaccine grabs by rich countries; protection of patent rights by governments in advanced countries, which prevents wider vaccine production; and the use of vaccine distribution to promote both nationalism and diplomatic ‘soft power.” He notes that the unequal, unjust and incompetent management due to vested interest and greed will delay the resolution of the pandemic, and indicates that humanity may be unable to handle future global challenges. He further states,
“It seems obvious that a pandemic can be overcome only when it is overcome everywhere. The delayed vaccination of people across the world increases the possibility of virus mutation, reducing the ability to control the pandemic even in rich countries that have bagged vaccines. Prolonged fear of infection, because of inadequate vaccination, affects economic prospects, inhibiting and delaying global economic recovery… rich countries would still benefit even if they decided to pay on their own for vaccinating the entire world’s population”.
A Guardian article ‘Gordon Brown hits out at EUs neocolonial approach to covid vaccine supplies‘ speaks on this issue. ‘We must keep reminding ourselves of the reason for ensuring the mass vaccination of the entire world,” he said. “No one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere, and everyone will live in fear until nobody does.”
As we finalise, another article worth reading is by Patrick Gathara in Al-Jazeera called ‘Charity alone will not end the Calamity of COVID-19 in Africa‘. In this piece, he gives hope as vaccines have proven not to be a silver bullet. While a ‘dependency dynamic’ has arisen where developing countries have been denied the opportunity to fairly buy vaccines or to produce them domestically, Africa is not a ‘hopeless continent’. He recommends that accountability by governments on public education, supporting medics and better useof available funds is a better route than begging and depending on charity.
This is a developing situation and more is yet to come. Please let us know of your reflections on this and the call for inclusion.
It is with great sadness that we post our own tribute to Nawal El Saadawi, who passed on March 21st 2021, aged 89. She was a feminist, secularist, prolific author, physician and activist for all of her adult life.
It is difficult to summarise her achievements and impact in just a few words but we start with several pieces from the media – please read Krishnan Unni in the Indian Express here, Sarah Smith in the Guardian here, Jasmine Taylor-Coleman for BBC here, including a short clip of El Saadawi talking about women’s rights, and Adele Newson-Horst in the Conversation here. Please also see here a piece from Equality Now featuring a short and powerful tribute from Dima Dabbous and a fascinating interview from Channel 4 News in UK. Please also read more about her life on wikipedia here.
El Saadawi wrote more than 50 books and we can only mention a few here that are featured on wikipedia or goodreads. For more about each book, please click on the name of the book mentioned:
We close this piece with several more of her powerful quotes… may she rest in peace and may her soul and spirit continue to inspire millions in the quest for social justice and equality.
In addition to the misery, pain and fear that millions of people around the world are experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 virus, there has also been a dramatic and sickening rise in discrimination and injustice around the world.
As countries “lock down” and close their borders, many are experiencing increased racism and xenophobia. In China in recent weeks, we have seen a situation where Africans and Black people in general are being blamed for the spread of the virus, leading to many acts of discrimination against them, including being forcibly evicted from their homes, refused entry to shops, restaurants and public transport. Read more about the situation in an article from DW here and in the East African here
In the US, perceived “blame” for the corona virus pandemic has been directed towards not only Chinese but also other Asian people. In a passionate article in Al Jazeera, Sahar Aziz argues that “anti-Asian racism must be stopped before it is normalised.”
Existing health and economic inequalities have been exacerbated in many countries, including in UK where Black and Minority Ethnic people are extremely over-represented amongst those suffering from the virus, as documented by Al Jazeera in this article.
Sexual and gender-based violence has also been on the rise in many parts of the world as illustrated in the following articles, two focusing on Kenya from the Daily Nation and the other one looking at the situation in Europe from BBC:
Those living with HIV are also in great fear due to their vulnerability to the virus from their compromised immune systems. In Tanzania, a number of people described this in an article for Al Jazeera as “we feel abandoned.“
In India, the recent rise in anti-Muslim sentiment and violence has gained even further ground during the Pandemic, and in many places Muslims are being openly blamed for spreading the virus. Read more about this in an article from the UK Guardian here
We are also saddened by the use of excessive force by police in many countries during curfews and lock-downs, which has resulted in additional trauma, injuries, rapes and deaths. An article from Reuters here focuses on this issues in several African countries. More is documented in another article from the UK’s Guardian called “Tear Gas, Beatings and Bleach.”
We would also like to share with you the SIHA Quarterly NewsLetter April 2020that outlines some of the challenges facing women in the Horn of Africa region, put together by SIHA (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa).
In Ethiopia, Meaza Ashenafi, first female president of the Supreme Court, has sanctioned courts to handle Gender-Based Violence cases as priority cases, which can be read here.
In Barcelona, Spain, a group of Pakistani taxi drivers have come together to offer free rides to health workers, as well as organising food parcels for homeless people and others in need. Please read the story from Al Jazeera here
There are many other heroes and heroines springing up in different places. In Kenya, a group of students have designed a prototype ventilator that is waiting for the go-ahead for mass production, which you can read about here. Two others are in USA: read about a doctor and senator who is tackling ventilator shortages here and a college student making masks specifically for those who are deaf and hard of hearing here
Take care, keep safe and let us all keep on with the struggle for justice and equality. There has never been more need for concerted advocacy and action. We welcome you to keep sharing with us other videos and articles that touch on COVID 19 and inclusion!
embrace everyone 