Lucy Mulombii is the chair of a women-led organisation of people with disabilities and chair of Kakamega County Disability Caucus in rural Kenya.
She is also a small business owner and participated in our inclusive livelihoods project, which is supporting microentrepreneurs with disabilities to develop and grow their businesses.
Self-confidence and self-esteem
”I and other women with disabilities have benefitted so much from the Inclusive Futures livelihoods programme. We’ve received training on how to develop our businesses through financial management, record-keeping, tax compliance, and marketing. The training we received on branding has really supported me and other women with disabilities to compete in the market with other small business owners.
”The programme also took us through self-advocacy training. It was through this training that I gained the self-esteem to approach institutions in the public and private sectors and ask them to give us business opportunities. It is that confidence that allowed me to approach a procurement officer at a public training centre and say: “I have a registered business and I’m ready to do business.” I have since secured a tender to supply cereals to that institution and my business is doing well.
”When you don’t have money in your pocket, when you don’t have confidence, you don’t speak out. Now, we are able to speak out about the issues that affect us economically.”
More support needed
“From 17-20 July 2023, I represented Inclusive Futures at the Women Deliver Conference 2023 in Kigali. My message to donors and people working in the development and humanitarian sector was to be more inclusive of women and girls with disabilities.
“Most of the time, grassroots organisations are left out of national and international dialogues on women’s rights. More support should be given to women-led or women focussed OPDs so that our voices can also be heard and we can meaningfully engage in those discussions.
“More support should also be given to strengthen the capacity of grassroots OPDs which are women-led or women-focused and ensure that funding opportunities are made accessible to them.
“Often during development programmes, women and girls with disabilities are not given a place at the table, so you’ll find people making decisions for us. People imagine that we don’t have solutions to our own issues.
“When we are at the planning table, we can speak from an informed position, provide solutions and meaningfully participate in the decisions taken.”
The story was first published by Inclusive Futures, a group of development specialists aiming to ensure people with disabilities are included.
