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SPEECH DELIVERED BY DAVID KABANGU AT BRUSSELS YOUNG VOICES GLOBAL CONFERENVCE

I will start my presentation by briefly talking about the Young Voices in Zambia before I talk about my own personal experiences. There are four groups of Young Voices in Zambia which are located in Ndola, usaka, !afue and i"ingstone. The Young Voices group in Zambia started in #$%$. &y #$%% there were two groups of Young Voices in Zambia and in #$%# the groups were increased to four. The main ob'ecti"e of the Young Voices pro'ect is to campaign and ad"ocate for the go"ernment to sign, ratify and domesticate the (nited Nations )on"ention on the *ights of +ersons with ,isabilities -(N)*+,.. The Young Voices groups played an important part in the process of making the go"ernment to ratify and domesticate the )on"ention on the *ights of +ersons with ,isabilities-)*+,. by collaborating with ,isabled +eople/s 0rgani1ation -,+0s..The Young Voices in Zambia lobbied the 2inister of )ommunity ,e"elopment, 2other and )hild 3ealth to be the )hampion for the Young Voices. The 2inistry of )ommunity ,e"elopment, 2other and )hild 3ealth is in charge of disabled people/s affairs. The role of the )hampion is to help Young Voices engage senior go"ernment officials on the rights of +ersons with ,isabilities. The )hampion helped the Young Voices groups to ha"e meetings with different go"ernment 2inisters in order to raise awareness about the )*+,. The ,+0s participated in the (N)*+, domestication process through their representati"es such as Zambia 4gency for +ersons with ,isabilities and Zambia 5ederation of the ,isabled as part of the stakeholders/ committee members. 2ost of the ,+0s participated during the consultati"e re"iew of the ,isability 4ct No6 77 of %889 and subse:uent recommendations consultati"e meetings. Their input to the re"iew and recommendation created ownership of the newly enacted ,isability 4ct No6 9 of #$%#.

There are few schools in Zambia that accommodates persons with hearing impairments. I don/t know of colleges and uni"ersities in Zambia that accommodates persons with hearing impairments. I ha"e faced many challenges especially that of discrimination because there are few people who can use sign language to communicate with me. I faced a lot of challenges to find schools which could accommodate me.

THE CHALLENGES MORE GENERALLY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN ZAMBIA 4ccording to the ;orld 3ealth 0rgani1ation estimates, some 98$,$$$ to % million women and men in Zambia, or < to %$ per cent of the population, ha"e a disability. 4 higher percentage of people with disabilities li"e in rural areas where access to basic ser"ices is limited. 4 #$$$ +opulation and 3ousing )ensus, which collected data on disability, reported that a large percentage of people with disabilities are self=employed workers, while "ery few are employers. The same )ensus also says that more than >$ per cent are employed in agriculture, making it by far the most common occupation. 4s a group, a ma'ority of Zambians with disabilities li"e in po"erty. ?treet begging is a pre"alent means of sur"i"al. iteracy le"els are "ery low among the population of disabled persons. +eople with disabilities in Zambia still face the challenge of discrimination especially in rural areas where knowledge about causes of disabilities is still missing. In rural areas, the ma'ority of people consider disability a curse and this leads to a person with a disability being re'ected and mistreated by members of his@her family. In rural areas, people do not know about the *ights of +ersons with ,isabilities. 4nother common challenge that people with disabilities in Zambia face is limited access to education and employment. There are "ery few educated persons with disabilities in Zambia. It is only recently that the go"ernment adopted inclusi"e education approach because of the efforts made by )heshire 3omes ?ociety of Zambia. There are few people with disabilities who ha"e formal 'obs because of high le"els of discrimination among some employers who ha"e a negati"e attitude toward persons with disabilities. ;e ha"e conducted a number of campaigns in Zambia but I will talk about the campaign we conducted on labour. 4s a member of the Young Voices we conducted a campaign aimed at increasing the number of persons with disabilities accessing formal employment. ;e did this by holding a abour )onsultati"e ;orkshop where key stakeholders were in"ited. The ,eputy 2inister of abour 3onourable *ayford 2bulu was the guest of honour. 0ther key participants came from trade unions, 2inistry of Aducation, 2inistry of 4griculture, and the media. The workshop was widely co"ered by the media. The challenges that persons with disabilities face in accessing employment were discussed and resolutions were made which the 2inistry of abour are still working on. 4s a result of this campaign we ha"e seen some companies employing persons with disabilities.

Government ! "#$$ort %or $eo$!e &'t( )'" *'!'t'e"

The Bo"ernment of Zambia has adopted a number of laws and policies pertaining to people with disabilities, including their right to producti"e and decent work and to basic ser"ices, workers/ compensation, social security, and entrepreneurship de"elopment. The main ones are listed and are as followsC The 1991 Zambian Constitution, amended in 1996, This contains one pro"ision on disability relating to the pro"ision of 'ust and e:uitable social benefits and amenities suitable to the needs of disabled people. The country/s )onstitution is still under re"iew. The Persons with Disabilities Act 1996, This act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of disability and establishes a ?tate agency = the Zambia 4gency for Per"on" with D'" *'!'t'e" = to promote, coordinate and pro"ide ser"ices for disabled $er"on". T(e D'" *'!'t+ A,t n#m*er - o% ./0. astly, the go"ernment passed ,isability 4ct number 9 of #$%# which domesticated the )*+,. The only thing which needs to be done now is to continue to campaign for the full implementation of this 4ct and if possible to scale up the outreach of the Young Voices to rural areas where people are still "ery ignorant about disabilities issues yet this is where the ma'ority of people with disabilities are found. Thank you and Bod bless you all.