Author: Tanatswa Mukwacha

Parenting education has numerous advantages for parents, kids and families of persons living with disabilities. Such programs can assist parents in discovering practical solutions for enhancing their child’s abilities, controlling difficult habits and fostering their development. It is also of great importance that parents and other stakeholders are educated on sexual exploitation and abuse preventative measures that can be taken to safeguard children and adolescents with disabilities.

For most families, parenting provides an ongoing source of happiness and joy as well as increased responsibility, anxiety and stress. Clearly, raising any child can be a difficult and emotional task for any parent, unfortunately, information pertaining to typical child development and childrearing strategies specific for parents with children with disabilities is very limited.

Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) conducted a disability inclusive Parenting and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) training. The project was done through the program ” Building Capacity and Culture of Protection from all Forms of Violence, Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities (CAWDs).

The objective of the training was to impart knowledge regarding disability inclusive parenting and to capacitate traditional leaders, DPOs, Faith-Based Organizations and Community based Organizations to facilitate case reporting, referral services and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of Children and adolescents with disabilities.

In attendance were representatives from Department of Social Development, Zvataida-UMP Rural District Council, Ministry of Youth, Traditional leaders, Faith based Organizations, Zvatinoda Special Needs and Care Club and other Community-Based Organizations. The training was a great success and our team managed to establish significant positive impact through the interactive and inclusive training.

The Zimbabwe Parents for Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) managed to create a Disability Inclusive Parenting Toolkit, the toolkit provided practical information on how to plan, coordinate and implement inclusive parenting that address the needs and priorities of children with disabilities.

The use of evidence-based interventions can be increased via a toolkit, which is a collection of flexible materials to guide and ease implementation. The majority of accessible toolkits offer materials regarding the intervention but do not include instructions for customization to various contexts or implementation support tactics. Generally, toolkits are designed to help users implement more seamlessly, thereby bridging or reducing the gap between implementation and practice. They provide a blueprint for what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

The Zimbabwe Parents Handicapped Children Association team managed to train community resource persons in Zhombe, Redcliff and Kwekwe on the Disability Inclusive Parenting Toolkit. The toolkit will include a set of short guidance, practical tools and capacity-building packages that provide operational guidance on including community resource persons on the disability parenting toolkit.

From the training, community resource persons managed understand what the Disability Inclusive Parenting Toolkit is, what it does, how to use it and how it is going to make positive change to children with disabilities. Persons in Zhombe, Redcliff and Kwekwe were extremely grateful and delighted of the training, hence they requested more programs and engagements from the Zimbabwe Parents Handicapped Children Association team.

By 2030, UNFPA pledges to stop all types of violence against women and girls as well as other harmful behaviors. Every year, the 16 Days of Activism campaign offers a significant platform for drawing attention to our shared mission to stop violence against women and girls. This year, under the UNiTE theme, “Activism to End Violence against Women & Girls”, UNFPA will focus on making online spaces safe by highlighting digital violence and all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) facilitated by technology.

They will also emphasize new approaches to GBV prevention and response strategies as well as the ability of activism to stop violence in both the physical and digital spheres. UNFPA seeks to advance its mission of ensuring that women and girls can exercise their unalienable right to feel safe, prosper and flourish wherever they are by elevating the voices of changemakers.

Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) joined the world in commemorating 16 days of activism against GBV. For us this year’s theme was Unite – activism to end violence against women and girls with disabilities. Girls with disabilities from ZPHCA prepared advocacy messages on violence against women and girls with disabilities and recorded videos sharing their messages.

Due to the intersection of gender and disability, women and girls with disabilities confront unique challenges in obtaining their rights. They endure denial of their dignity and autonomy, as well as prejudice, exclusion and isolation all too frequently, both in public and within their own families. Hence through the stated 2022 theme we want to unite as all stakeholders to end violence against women and girls living with disabilities.