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Guyana Capacity Building

Engaging Young Leaders with Disabilities

A s part of its Youth

Advocacy, Linkages and
Leadership in Elections
and Society (Youth Allies) project
in Guyana, and with support from
the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID),
the International Foundation for
Electoral Systems (IFES) brought 26
young people with disabilities from
seven of the 10 regions in Guyana The ENGAGE participants were 18 to 29 years
together for the participation in its Engaging the old and had a range of disabilities, including
Next Generation for Accessible Governance and participants who are blind or have low vision,
Elections (ENGAGE) young people with disabilities participants from the Deaf community, people with
leadership program, in June, 2022. physical disabilities and persons with intellectual
The ENGAGE training focused on building disabilities. For the majority of the young people in
participants’ leadership skills and increasing their attendance, this was their first time participating
understanding of political and civic processes, in an interactive training on governance and
over three days. Participants practiced their public leadership. A number of participants shared that
speaking and networking skills, learned more about building a network with their peers will help them
Guyanese government accomplish change
and disability rights in their communities
frameworks and were and support each
exposed to a range Being an active wheelchair-user, my takeaway from this other as they
of advocacy and civic training is that this will change my decision making and the pursue political and
engagement tools. actions I will be taking. With what I have learned from this civic engagement.
workshop, I have more knowledge and have an action plan to
Guest speakers included change the lives of people with disabilities in my region. This Participants also
Guyana Council of is going to impact the lives of the people I know. committed to
Organizations for – Young Indigenous Participant staying in touch via
Persons with Disabilities a WhatsApp group
(GCOPD) Director and to identifying
Ganesh Singh, GCOPD and contacting their
member Rosemarie local government
Ramitt and an advisor to the police force, Mandell representatives to discuss issues important to their
Moore. The speakers provided insight into being community. As a follow-up to the initial training,
leaders with disabilities in Guyana and gave ENGAGE participants will reconvene virtually to
participants the opportunity to ask questions about share their experiences and discuss their next steps
how they have overcome barriers to participation as leaders.
and leadership.
Meredith Applegate
Country Director, Guyana
Credit: IFES. Link to original article: https://www.ifes.org/news/engaging-young-leaders-disabilities-guyana

October 2022 | VoICE International | 65