Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, a consortium of disability rights advocacy organisations has awarded grants to some three disabled people’s organisations, a women rights group and a capacity-building partner to strengthen the new grantees.
The one million cedis worth grant termed ‘Legacy and Sustainability Grant’, was launched in Accra on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. It will last for one year.
The awardees are expected to harness the unique contribution and strengths of small and grassroots organisations, by strengthening their capacity to bring about sustainable change in the lives of people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions, particularly women with disabilities or mental health conditions.
The provision of funding support for disability and mental health is in line with Ghanaian calls for better disability inclusion, and greater investment in mental health.
According to the team leader of Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, Madam Lyla Adwan-Kamara, the objectives of the grant are to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of small and grassroots women’s rights organisations and disabled people’s organisations to enable them to play a greater role in user-led approaches to claiming the rights of people, especially women, with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions.
The other is to improve the well-being of, and empower people, especially women, with disabilities, including mental health conditions, through interventions implemented by small and grassroots organisations
The recipient Organisations include Duapa Mothers Union, Ghana Blind Union (GBU), Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), Women with Disability Development & Advocacy Organisation and the Capacity building partner, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD).
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme) is a four-year disability programme in Ghana, with a specific focus on mental health. The programme is funded with UK Aid from the UK government.
The programme is run by an Options’ led consortium, which also consists of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Kings College London, Sightsavers and Tropical Health, and focuses on four key areas: Promoting stronger policies and systems that respect the rights of people with disabilities, including people with mental health disabilities, and scaling up high quality and accessible mental health services.
The rest are reducing stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities and generating evidence to inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of disability and mental health programmes and interventions
Ghana Somubi Dwumadie also undertook a range of activities to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities, including people with mental health conditions.
In 2020, the COVID-19 related work included the award of seven small grants to provide COVID-19 psychosocial support and resilience. This grant call has successfully ended.
In 2021, the Programme also launched an Evidence and Effectiveness grants for Mental Health and Disability Inclusion round. The overarching objective of that call was to ensure that people with disabilities, including people with mental health disabilities, are in the lead on approaches to improve their well-being, social and economic outcomes, and rights.
The Legacy and Sustainable grants call is Ghana Somubi Dwumadie’s third grants round.
Source: disabilitynewsgh.com
