Why the #IYV?

The Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) is a leading disability-focused network engaged in coordinating activities of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in the Southern Africa region, working in all the 16 countries of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). In each country, SAFOD coordinates programs and activities through its national affiliates.

Despite SAFOD conducting a series of training sessions in recent years to build the capacity of some youths with disabilities in using online media to advance disability mainstreaming in the region, such interventions did not bear satisfactory results. This was due mainly to resource constraints among the trained youths and broadly within the affiliated OPDs.

SAFOD believes that these resource constraints include a lack of data bundles and gadgets, among others. However, conducting an assessment survey targeted at the targeted children and youths would help validate these factors and explore more effective approaches of working with these kids to implement various online campaigns.

SAFOD recognizes that despite the drive for leveraging online technology, access remains a challenge because of various reasons, including high data costs, limited or lack of internet connectivity, especially in rural areas, and limited access to smartphones in some cases.

Hence, through the #Inclusive-Young-Voices (#IYV), SAFOD will support the young ambassadors with data bundles and tablets as an immediate solution to run the campaign effectively.

SAFOD will strengthen this effort by engaging with local network providers to mobilize for data bundles in all five countries. This initiative will mobilize data and create visibility for both the network providers and young ambassadors.