AKASA and Me

When I first created this blog I was only thinking of keeping my friends updated of what is going on with me and how I am coping with all of it. However, as me and my friend Joel are chatting, about the successes and challenges we faced being a volunteer advocacy and leadership advisor here in sri lanka and him as volunteer project advisor in china, and discussing advocacy strategies we use in our respective placements, we realized that what better to make use and maximize this blog but to utilize it as another medium of our advocacy effort in creating awareness of the issues we are very passionate with the hope to make a difference.

The organization I worked with is the Association of Women with Disabilities (AKASA). This is a network of self help groups of women with disabilities who aimed to improve the lives of people with disabilities and women with disabilities in particular. AKASA believes that people with disabilities must enjoy the same human rights as everyone else and the best way to achieve this is by empowering persons with disabilities through education and economic development. Their mission is to support people with disabilities in Sri Lanka in order to protect them from economic, political, cultural and social discrimination. They encourage them to develop their skills and talents in order to obtain equal opportunities for full participation in society and help them live as independent, self reliant citizens of their country.

The founder, a woman with mobility impairment had struggled to find suitable and accessible employment and housing and realized that change is needed whereby women with disabilities would gain independence and become integrated in mainstream society. Realizing that it would be impossible to get her lone voice heard, she organized a group of women with disabilities from different districts in Sri Lanka and started discussion and planning on what could be done. Hence, in December 30, 1995 the group was formed and called them-selves AKASA which means the Sky in sinhala.

As a foundation of this organization, AKASA facilitates the formation of a network of self help groups of persons with disabilities particularly women with disabilities or their guardians. Then several meetings and workshops are conducted to motivate, train and empower this structure to run independently. Once the structure has been formed, AKASA signed a formal agreement recognizing their independence as well as empowering and challenging them to conduct their affairs. The selection of members is being made by the association with guidance and advice from AKASA on criteria, priorities, policies, etc. Then AKASA project staff supervises and facilitates the selection and disbursement of micro credit loans to individual members during the first cycle only, attends monthly meetings of the small groups, village groups and the divisional association which make up the lower, grass root levels; coordinate and arrange trainings as identified by the association and monitor and evaluate the group’s/association’s performance.

Further, another main activity is the management of the residential vocational training center for girls and women with disability. We have instructors who teach and guides students in sewing, arts and crafts, home gardening and animal husbandry. We also coordinate with other government and non government organizations on trainings and workshops for the advancement of the girls and women at the center.

Moreover, another main activity of AKASA is organizing women with disabilities into district movement of women with disabilities with a minimum of 25 memberships to a maximum of 200 per district (at least at this stage). Once it is organized, a leadership training is conducted which aimed to build a broader understanding of the concept and skills of leadership and its role in individual, group or organizational initiatives to advocate for the rights of marginalized population segments. AKASA also aimed to deepen their understanding of rights based approaches to work with marginalized population and examine existing legislative and administrative mechanisms as well as to understand some of the strategic and tactical choices for participatory communication for effective advocacy. AKASA intends to set the scene for and obtain positive shifts in the opinions, policies and practices of the target agencies which we hoped will result in permanent changes in the long term. The lobbying strategies and engagement mechanisms take variety of forms which includes direct petitioning, development of position papers, participation and providing support for policy development, practical recommendations of ways to include women with disabilities into policies and programmes, invitations of government and organization representatives to WWD’s Network activities as well as grass-root advocacy activities.

This is the reason why I am placed with this organization. Part of my role and responsibility is to provide training and guidance on community mobilization, setting up DPO’s (Disabled People Organization) as well as capacity building training focus on leadership, organizational management, creating advocacy resources and developing advocacy strategies. There are so many challenges which sometimes made me think to give up. The work is so much and its impact is also greater than we imagined. Another reason why in spite of all the challenges and issues I have here, I don’t want to give up. The smile and the eagerness of women to move their cause forward gives me strength to combat homesickness, loneliness, the language barrier and many more. No matter how low I feel of being alone and the only one in this side of the country, the determination I witnessed in them made me realized that my struggle is nothing compared to what they are experiencing. It pushed me to do more and not be contented with what is being given. I feel humbled and warmed of all the experience I had so far. I knew I learnt a lot from them more than they learn from me. The experience of being a volunteer, of living a simpler life, of knowing that you have touched more lives in whatever small way you can and helping an organization achieve its goal, is more rewarding than any awards I have received in my life. I know that when I head back home, I’ll go with more experience and more knowledge to share.