Issue Identification Workshop for women with disabilities of Rupandehi.

Access Planet Organization, in partnership with the USAID/TAF CSM program, organized a one-day workshop titled "Issue Identification Workshop for Women with Disabilities" at Butwal, Rupandehi on June 24, 2024. The workshop aimed to facilitate open discussions and brainstorming sessions to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues faced by women with disabilities. The active participation of women with disabilities helped to distinguish between generic and specific issues, providing valuable real-life cases and perspectives for future advocacy efforts.  The workshop was led by Srijana Dhakal, the vice chair of Access Planet.

Objectives:

The main objectives of the workshop were as follows:

• To identify and prioritize issues faced by women with disabilities in accessing justice in Tilottama Municipality & Butwal sub-metropolitan.
• To develop an advocacy document based on the identified issues.

Ms. Srijana Dhakal led the issue identification workshop using various methodologies for open sharing and structured group discussions. In the beginning of the workshop, the facilitator led the open sharing of the issues faced by participants in the context of their intersecting identities as women with disabilities belonging to diverse backgrounds. The open sharing led the participants to share their issues in plenary. After all the participants shared their personal stories, they were asked to work in groups to discuss the issues of access to justice under various sub-themes assigned by the facilitator. After the group presented the issues compiled from the group discussion, the same groups were again asked to create an action plan, which was facilitated by Srijana Dhakal.

Output:

• The workshop successfully identified a range of issues related to women with disabilities accessing justice.
• Their self-esteem and confidence levels increased as this was the first workshop for some participants, leading to a greater ability to advocate for their issues.