Old name alert
Wonderful things are happening for children with disabilities in Mozambique! Humanity & lnclusion and UNICEF have partnered with the local government to make sure that children can get the special help they need to at from their time at home with their loving families, to when they go to school with their friends, and to live a happy life.
In 2015, HI and UNICEF launched the latest version of the Fair ‘n Square website which features the testimonies from six children with disabilities who have benefited from HI’s support. The website looks at the ways in which children and adults with disabilities in Mozambique are discriminated against on a daily basis.
The goal of the website is to raise the community’s awareness on disability and to provide information on how to ensure that people with disabilities in Mozambique are included in every day life.
It also features an animated film (watch above) explaining the problems encountered by children with disabilities and the support they need to improve their living conditions, along with an online game that gives visitors the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be excluded.
Identifying people with disabilities
Fair’n square provides information on the actions taken by HI and UNICEF to improve the social inclusion of people with disabilities in Mozambique: “The first step is to identify people with disabilities, who often live in isolation,” explains HI’s social protection project manager, Ezequiel Mingane. “A child with disabilities may not automatically be enrolled in school, for example, or may find it hard to venture outside their home because their parents are either overprotective or ashamed of them. Meeting the child is the first step toward providing them with appropriate assistance.”
Our teams provide guidance and information services, which include several mobile teams, that identify children with disabilities in 35 districts of Maputo, Matola, and Beira. These services will soon be available in Tete and Nampula.
More about the partnership with UNICEF
This joint project was launched in 2012 to advance the social inclusion of people with disabilities and to improve their access to education, health, rehabilitation, and psychosocial support services. To date, around 9,000 people with disabilities have been identified, of whom a quarter are children. More than 10,000 families have been provided with information and involved in actions to end discrimination. Some 60 facilities have been adjusted to make public services accessible and 250 items of mobility equipment (crutches, wheelchairs, etc.) have been distributed to children with disabilities.