Male Allies for WPS Awardee Spotlight 2022
Awardee Spotlight May 2022
Enlightening and Empowering People with Disabilities in Africa (EEPD AFRICA)
Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie, Founder and Managing Director
Enlightening and Empowering People with Disabilities in Africa (EEPD Africa) assists and advocates for those with disabilities throughout Africa. Starting with addressing education equity issues in Ghana, it also focuses on other accessibility issues, such as access to quality health care and transportation.
As one of the distinguished partners for women, peace, and security award recipients, EEPD Africa used their funds to advocate for inclusive elections in Ghana. Specifically, facilitating workshops, conducting advocacy, running trainings, and managing campaigns involving people in villages to that they understand the power of their vote. Those who are vulnerable are “bribed” with rice, oil, and other means to vote for a certain person and those populations often don’t understand their rights when it comes to voting.
The unrestricted funding came at the perfect time, according to Komabu-Pomeyie, because they were able to advocate more quickly and efficiently in the communities where voting is not as accessible.
In the future, Komabu-Pomeyie hopes to build an inclusive education school in Ghana. This would be a one-stop-shop for access to international schools and anyone with disabilities from any country would be able to go to this school. Komabu-Pomeyie wants the public to understand that disability issues are a cross-border issue and treating disabilities is a lifelong journey. She wants to see real change, starting with seeing people as people, not see them for their disabilities.
Semerera Youth Coalition Against Gender-Based Violence
Fikiri Nzoyisenga, Executive Director
The Semerera Youth Coalition Against Gender-Based Violence is working towards the elimination of violence against women and girls in Burundi. It aims to find a sustainable solution to this problem by empowering women through women empowerment programs, economic development programs, and programs about women being included in decision-making processes at the local level.
As one of the distinguished partners for women, peace, and security award recipients, Semerera Youth Coalition Against Gender-Based Violence used the funding to create a women's entrepreneurship program. In this program, women are able to network, learn and participate in capacity-building workshops, and receive small grants to help start or continue their work.
In the future, the Semerera Youth Coalition Against Gender-Based Violence plans on continuing to grow, particularly their women's entrepreneurship program. Recently, the US Embassy in Burundi came and saw the beneficiaries of this women's entrepreneurship program. Members of the Semerera Youth Coalition Against Gender-Based Violence wants to highlight that the women of Burundi feel like they have been forgotten and that there needs to be a continued call for women’s representation in decision-making bodies at the local level and greater access to financial resources.