People with disabilities often face social stigma, which can make them feel helpless, isolated and more vulnerable to the challenges of life. To help tackle the issue of discrimination and social stigma against the disability community in Turkmenistan, the UN country team joined forces with partners to organize the country’s first ever Inclusive Sport Festival.
You are dependent on your husband, or your parents, or your uncle, or other people. They may show some kindness, but often it is coupled with scorn. They see you as a burden. They take their frustration and anger out on you. They do not send you to school, for they say it is not worth it. They use cruel names to speak of you. They do not feed you enough. They hit you. They may have their way with you.
People living with disabilities face a range of barriers every day. Through the Joint SDG Fund, UN agencies in Georgia share this short animation of Babi, a 7-year-old girl who explains what it means to be a child living with a visual impairment today.
A young man in dark glasses holding an accordion shuffled on stage in Kumanovo during an event organized to celebrate the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the local community. “Mother, do you remember me?” he sang. The haunting song, of his own composition, told of his abandonment by his family solely because he was born blind.
In a calm neighborhood nestled between the busy streets of Mar Mikhael in Beirut, a heartwarming haven known as ‘Access Kitchen’ flourished. It is Lebanon’s first community kitchen led and run by a group of women with disabilities.
Guljahan Tanalova has her hands full.
She is raising a son alone, and she is coordinator of a new project providing social services for people with disabilities in the city of Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan. She herself has a disability resulting from a musculoskeletal disorder.
