There are 2.5 million disabled children in Uganda, the highest prevalence in the North, where civil war has decimated healthcare and basic services, leaving them vulnerable to extreme discrimination and social exclusion. Described as ‘invisible’ these children are hidden at home, and significant numbers of parents have told us they face pressure to neglect or kill a disabled child to avoid family disgrace. The result is that Uganda’s disabled children are trapped in poverty, stripped of their independence and denied their basic human rights.
In 2011 Imagination secured funding from Comic Relief as part of its International Sport for Change programme to pilot a project in three districts of Northern Uganda. Alongside the Gulu Disabled Persons Union and the Kids League we set up an inclusive sports league and trained up coaches to work with disabled children to access grassroots sport. Running parallel we developed a network of peer mentors who used the league to identify vulnerable disabled children, who they subsequently engaged with through home-visits, gaining their trust and confidence so that they could help them in understanding their rights, promote self-advocacy and support them to access education or community activities.
The sports league also served to increase local awareness of disability as children were encouraged to participate alongside their peers in public tournaments and school competitions.
