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Buikwe Disabled and Vulnerable Empowerment Association [BUDIVEA]

Buikwe District, Uganda
Joined July 2020

BUDIVEA works to promote community resilience on the issues of human rights, governance, advocacy, education, ageing, LGBT and disability in the rural communities of Buikwe District, Uganda.

Presence in: Uganda
Focus: Community / Customary Land Rights, Education, Environmental Justice, Family, Gender-based violence, Livelihoods, Policy Advocacy, Right to Information, Women's Rights

BUDIVEA is a community based organization founded in 2016 by women with disabilities in rural communities of Buikwe District. We target girls and women with disabilities, older persons with disabilities  and LGBTQI with disabilities that are living around Lake Victoria shores. The area has limited/ no access at all to police, education, health, rehabilitation and road network services by the community and it is worse with women with disabilities. The social norms in Buikwe district still promote discriminatory behaviour and indifference. Girls and women with disabilities are considered by people to be “sick”, “a burden”, instead of being persons who can participate in daily life and contribute to the development of their families and community[1]. Buikwe being a new district curved off from Mukono district, the priorities are not put on WWDs around Lake victoria shores.  As a women with disabilities led organization, our focus has been in advocacy and capacity building around justice and the unequal power systems of class, education, ability, and ethnicity among girls and women with disabilities (GWwDs), Older Persons with disabilities (OPWDs) and Disabled LGBT.  WwDs have historically been left out of the decision making tables at community, district, and national levels therefore, the initiatives that are in place in Buikwe District are both gender and disability blind. Our work has consciously involved Girls and women with disabilities (GWWDs), Older Persons with disabilities (OPWDs) and Disabled LGBT as they are often the ones who provide and collect data and information about the district and without creating consciousness to WwDs concerns  within them, we fear GWwDs will continue being left out of crucial rights conversations.

[1] https://www.ubos.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/09_2019DISABILITY_MONOGRAPH_-_FINAL.pdf