The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) and Mobility International USA (MIUSA) implemented the Regional WILD (Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability) Asia 2018 in Colombo recently. It was the first of its kind to be initiated by MIUSA in Asia.
A US-based non-profit organisation, MIUSA is committed to empower people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development.
MIUSA’s training sessions are fashioned to prepare people with disabilities to take leadership in advocating for inclusion across a wide range of sectors, including education, employment, micro enterprise, violence prevention, access to health care, technology and policy making.
The Colombo workshop brought together 15 women participants with diverse disabilities. Three local participants joined representatives from China, India and Nepal.
The participants were selected through an ‘open application’ process and reviewed by a panel.
The eight-day program, as the Manager of the Disability Network, EFC, and the local trainer for the WILD Asia, Manique Gunaratne said, was envisioned to be a ‘holistic’ exercise where the participants exchanged their experiences, and explore strategies to become catalysts of inclusiveness and change.
“The main objective of WILD-Asia was to empower the delegates to become agents of change, by empowering them to give leadership to those with disabilities at the grass root level,” Gunaratne said. EFC’s Director General, Kanishka Weerasinghe said, “The EFC’s Network on Disability and its disability resource centre have received global accolades as an exemplary model. “The ILO Global Global Business Disability Network has consistently highlighted the achievements of the network and its managing officer, Gunaratne. The Network serves as a link between the business community and the organisations dealing with disability issues to facilitate mainstreaming its work,” Weerasinghe said.
MIUSA CEO, Susan Sygall said, “MIUSA is honoured to host our first regional WILD in Sri Lanka, bringing together disabled women activists from this region who are passionate to strengthen their leadership skills and work for greater inclusion of women and girls with disabilities. Women with disabilities need to be recognised as leaders in both humanitarian and development efforts in this region and throughout the world.”
The Regional WILD training also featured the launch of MIUSA’s photo exhibition, themed Brilliant and Resilient: Celebrating the Power of Disabled Women Activists. The international travelling exhibition featured portraits and vignettes of 30 women activists with disabilities from around the world.
The workshop which was also a celebration of diversity and mutual learning and sharing brought under the spotlight the expertise of the participants in areas such as education, gender equality, economic empowerment, reproductive health and policy change. The workshop was also in tune with the EFC’s vision of promoting social harmony through productive employment. The EFC which is the national employers’ organisation in Sri Lanka and the employer constituent for Sri Lanka in the ILO through its membership of employers drawn from a multitude sectors currently employs approximately 800,000 people in the formal sector.