Dr. Lynn Rose, CGDS Deputy Director, visited three disability advocacy organizations in Somalia and one in Ethiopia during the third week of March, 2021. She met first with SODEN, the Somalia Organization for Disability Empowerment Network, in Mogadishu. SODEN serves people with disabilities of all types, and focuses on advocacy, education, and legal reform. Next, she visited Al Basiir, the Mogadishu School for the Blind, a residential school which is run by blind people for blind people of all ages. After that, she was hosted by the Somali Disability Network, an advocacy organization of people with disabilities who focus on economic and legal reform. In Addis Ababa, she visited the Selihom Mentally Ill People Support Association, where the staff includes people who recovered at the facility. CGDS works with disability advocacy organizations in recognition that social justice, and social injustice, is intersectional.
Image description: Eight men and two women, almost all disabled, stand behind a long, light colored table. Everyone wears masks and the two women wear hijab. Three men hold white canes; one woman and one man hold crutches; and one man sits in a wheelchair. On the table are some bottles of water, a box of gloves, hand sanitizer, an open tablet, and two orange lanyards.