In this episode, we learn how UK Aid Match grant holder ADD International are empowering their partners in Uganda - Buganda Disabled Union (BUDU) and Source of the Nile Union of Persons with Albinism (SNUPA) - to drive change for people with disabilities.
Acronyms:
OPDs - Organisations of Persons with Disabilities
UKAM - UK Aid Match
VSLA's - Village Saving Loan Associations
Emma 0:10:
Welcome to The Learning Post, a podcast dedicated to sharing learnings and insights from UK Aid Match. My name is Emma Hayward and I'm a Performance and Risk Manager for UK Aid Match and your host for this episode.
Today we are joined by Mwerya Scovia, Uganda Team Lead for UK Aid Match grant holder, ADD International, and representatives from ADD’s implementing partners in Uganda - Kamya Stephen from Buganda Disabled Union or BUDU and Ogik Peter from Source of the Nile Union of Persons with Albinism - SNUPA.
ADD International’s work is rooted in empowering disability rights organisations and activists in Africa and Asia to drive change for people with disabilities. The approach ADD is taking to this is innovative and their UK Aid Match project is a good example of one that is considered to be ‘transformative’ on the UKAM Disability-Responsiveness matrix. This is what we are going to talk about today.
Thank you all for joining us.
Firstly, Scovia, could you tell us a bit about ADD International, and in particular the approach ADD takes to supporting the disability justice movement? Why is this so important?
Scovia 01:26:
Thank you for having us on the podcast.
ADD International is a participatory grant-maker for disability justice. Our Vision is a world in which ableism no longer exists and disabled people can fully participate in society. And Our Mission is to strengthen disability justice activists and organisations through resourcing and leadership skills.
We fund disability justice activists around the world to implement their ideas. Because of their lived experience they know best what needs to be done but really struggle to access funding. We want to change that. In our new model, persons with disabilities decide how the money should be spent.
As well as funding, we support persons with disabilities with training and support, according to what they ask for. We are running a Disability Leadership Academy to support disability justice activists to grow, network and lead.
As well as the work we do directly, we want to influence others in the sector to shift the power in funding and collaboration. Currently we are running a campaign for Fairer Funding for Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, together with several OPD leaders and funders, to encourage more funding for disability justice, and more control over this funding by people with lived experience.
Emma 02:48:
Thank you, Scovia, this is so exciting and a real shift in the way that many NGOs have traditionally worked with OPDs.
Let’s talk about how this approach is playing out in your UK Aid Match project. How is ADD supporting Ugandan Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) to take the lead on driving change for young persons with disabilities?
Scovia 03:08:
We are implementing a UK Aid Match funded project, Look At My Garden Grow, which supports persons with disabilities in Uganda who want to grow their own food.
When working on the fundraising campaign to raise money for the project through UKAM, we first spoke to disability justice activists who had set up kitchen gardens to overcome the challenges of food shortages during covid. They wanted to support and train their peers to set up their own gardens and have access to a reliable food source, and income, so we built the campaign with them. Now, the work they envisioned is well underway.
ADD International has been offering trainings and support as requested for the project and implementing this with our partners BUDU and SNUPA.
We’ve found that not only has this project resulted in better access to food, some of those taking part have also been able to set up small businesses selling the vegetables they grow and have also told us that the new skills they have learnt have changed the way they are viewed in their communities, reducing discrimination, which is brilliant.
Emma 04:17:
Absolutely wonderful. This model really highlights the importance of co-creation, empowering persons with disabilities to directly participate in, or even lead on, the project design, implementation and results measurement. This is a big step beyond simple consultation and that’s what makes the project truly transformative.
Stephen, you’re part of the team implementing the UK Aid Match project. Are you able to tell us about BUDU and explain how the UKAM project aligns with BUDU’s work supporting young people with disabilities in Luwero District?
Stephen 04:54:
Buganda Disabled Union was founded by young people with disabilities to raise awareness about disability inclusion within development programmes in Buganda kingdom, which has a big significant influence over the culture and economy of central Uganda.
Through the UK Aid Match project, BUDU has mobilized people with disabilities and organised them into self-help groups so that they can support each other, emotionally and practically, to take control over lives. This way, they do not have to depend so heavily to others to meet their basic needs.
We are working with Action Disability and Development to train them in setting up their own kitchen gardens to help them eat their own food, sell some, join savings groups and change the misconceptions around disability. This has reduced levels of violence experienced by young people with disabilities because family members and the wider community now see them as productive members of the community.
We have also conducted successful advocacy work for disability inclusion in central government. As part of the project, we identified areas of support we needed from ADD. They have supported us with training around data collection, data analysis and interpretation. Through this project we have also had access to a network for better collaboration.
Emma 07:03:
Thank you, Stephen, I am so lucky to have seen for myself the impact BUDU is creating in Luwero and I’m excited to see how the training in data collection and analysis feeds into your next Annual Report for UK Aid Match.
Peter, SNUPA is also an implementing partner in this project. Can you tell me about SNUPA’s work and how it is making a difference for young persons with disabilities in Jinja District?
Peter 07:29:
SNUPA was established to fight widespread abuse and stigma against persons with albinism, including ritual sacrifice and rape.
The objectives of SNUPA are to raise awareness through public campaigns on the status of persons with albinism and to raise support and resources to address different challenges that they face.
SNUPA has mobilized and networked with albinism persons across the country, and we were able to mobilize resources which has helped us to have a nationwide skin clinics to reduce skin cancer. Organizing also the International Albinism Awareness Day which every year attracts over 700 persons with albinism and over 1000 people without albinism including the media houses, lifting our voices. Through this we were able to do a campaign which has now helped us to remove the taxes on the import of the sunscreen lotions.
Over time, SNUPA has been focusing so much on persons with albinism but right now we have shifted our focus to also address the challenges by other persons with disabilities.
Through the UK Aid Match project, SNUPA works to challenge norms about what young women with disabilities can do. We show positive role models in kitchen gardening, campaigns and media and support peer leaders to directly engage with families, VSLAs and government to dispel myths and show what is possible when young people with disabilities lead their own initiatives.
For norms around violence against women, we have built awareness amongst women with disabilities and their families, gathered evidence on how self-generated changes in food security affects violence and used this data for advocacy, to build peer support through OPDs, and link women with disabilities to existing services.
Through this project we have formed linkages between SNUPA and other organizations to network and collaborate and see how we can improve the lives of persons with disabilities. ADD has also supported us to develop our strategic plan and strengthening reporting, as well as our work around evidence-based advocacy. This has also enabled us to create more linkage with different community stakeholders and has helped us to improve the quality and vision of services to persons with disabilities within our communities. It’s so important to note that now we are even inspiring those without disabilities.
Emma 10:53:
Wow, it sounds like working with ADD has been an important step in building up the tools you need to amplify the voices of persons with disabilities, particularly women in Jinja, and making sure they are able to participate in the various programmes and services available to them.
Finally, Scovia, do you have any advice for other grant holders who are working with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, and what can we expect from ADD International next?
Scovia 11:21:
Yes, persons with disabilities have told us directly – they don’t want to just be consulted; they want to take the lead and use their lived experience for more impactful work. We have seen first-hand that this is not only a fairer approach – it’s more effective.
If other NGOs or funders want to get involved in shifting the power and creating fairer funding for OPDs, please check out our Fairer Funding campaign on our website – add.org.uk
And in terms of what’s next… We are currently setting up grants with women-led disability justice organisations in Africa. This was a participatory process designed by women with disabilities. In 2025 we will be doing more participatory grant-making in Africa and Asia.
Alongside our grant-making, we are launching a Global Disability Leadership Academy. We will encourage collaboration action and movement-building by promoting collaboration and learning amongst individual disability justice organisations and leaders in each region.
Emma 12:31:
And we wish you the very best of luck with these new programmes Scovia.
Thank you, everyone, for talking to us today. It’s been really fantastic to hear about your journey in supporting the disability justice movement and we look forward to seeing your next steps take shape!
To find out more about ADD International, head over to their website at www.add.org.uk.
And don't forget to subscribe to The Learning Post so you don't miss any future episodes.