International Women’s Day (IWD) is of particular importance because it highlights a portion of the population which has long been pushed aside and ignored. For me as a young woman with a disability, it has also served as an opportunity to pay respect to the amazing women who have come before me while forging my own path as an advocate for disability rights and youth participation. This year’s IWD theme is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” To me, that truly encompasses what women have been fighting for all along – a world in which, through collaboration, we create a better future for everyone. One of the biggest challenges to that goal is climate change. In recent years, we have seen young people make their voices heard and demand adequate action from duty bearers, persons with disabilities, particularly women, have been largely excluded from the conversation.
What people fail to realize most often is that climate change further exacerbates existing issues for persons and women with disabilities such as access to healthcare and jobs, food security, inaccessible infrastructure and housing, among others. That oversight can be removed by including persons with disabilities, particularly women, in policymaking bodies. In addition to that, it is imperative to start teaching climate literacy at schools and make sure this is accessible for adolescent girls with various disabilities. Women with can also tell you how to create accessible shelters, alleviate factors leading to traveling difficulties and so on. I can confirm that further inclusion is a successful approach based on lived experience.
As a global ambassador for UNICEF’s platform U-Report, I had the chance to attend the Africa-EU Week and represent the voices of over 450 000 young people who participated in the campaign #YourVoiceYourFuture. It gave a platform to youth from Africa and Europe to express their voice on important topics, including climate change. The culminating event for it occurred in Brussels. While there, I made sure to advocate for inclusive education and even point out some overlooked aspects of ensuring an accessible environment for others like me. My inclusion made me feel empowered and like I was truly contributing towards the better treatment of my community. That is why it is extremely important for girls and women with disabilities to use this year’s International Women’s Day and propel the conversation forward. As I have stated before, we are the best writers of our own stories. We deserve to not be worried about where we would spend the night due to climate displacement, or whether we would be able to see a medical specialist. The solution to these problems and others like it is rather simple – policymakers need to create mechanisms which allow for diverse women to provide input on different issues. It is not only beneficial from a humanitarian standpoint, but from an economic one as well. As people who have experienced a variety of barriers, women with disabilities can foresee some issues before they even arise. It is of crucial importance to not allow for girls and women with disabilities to become climate refugees, or worse - if this happens, for them to be left behind. Anticipating a problem and dealing with it before it emerges is definitely more cost-effective than trying to fix it when it comes.
For this International Women’s Day, I would like for people to remember some things:
- Women deserve a seat at the decision-making table. True gender equality means people working together to create a more sustainable future. Use the power of technology and digital connectedness to mobilize support for girls and women with disabilities from across the spectrum of genders, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, etc. If the “climate boat” is rocking, we will all sink and no one gets out of it dry.
- To my fellow women with disabilities, I know fighting for our rights can be exhausting and we sometimes feel like we are alone. But we are not. There are so many people who are fighting alongside us and understand what we have been through. If you feel alone, just remember there is a twenty-year-old girl from Bulgaria who is with you every step of the way.
Maria, age 20, student, Cerebral Palsy, Bulgaria