Learning With and From the Global South: Engaging Girls and Young Women with Disabilities Across Southern Spaces
Objectives: The Youth Leadership Circle (YLC) workshop aims to:
- Create a transnational space for girls and young women with disabilities across three project sites to engage in network building and enhance learning experiences regarding their approaches to leadership and activism.
- Facilitate opportunities to engage across the three transnational sites to promote a shared collective agenda for and of women and girls with disabilities across three locations.
- To explore and develop a culturally relevant approach that adapts and translates this agenda to each of their local contexts.
Attendees:
- Twelve girls and young women with disabilities from Vietnam, India, and South Africa & caretakers of the women and girls.
- Do Hoang Duc Anh, Nguyen Thi Yen Anh, Phan To Mai (UNICEF Staff).
- Professors Vo Xuan Tung and Nguyen Truong Tho from Hue University of Sciences.
- Professors Nguyen Xuan Thuy, Karen Maree Soldatic, Dr. Huynh Thi Anh Phuong, and Ms. Truong Thi Xuan Nhi (The Research Team Members)
Activities:
June 12, 2023, marked the opening sections of the Youth Leadership Circle – one of the unique transnational learning networks of young women and girls with disabilities across three countries from the Global South including Vietnam, South Africa, and India.
The activities included:
- Storytelling of young women and girls with disabilities through collage making: Each of the participants made their collage that tells their personal stories of leadership and activism, using different materials to create their art.
Image 1: A woman with visual impairment participated in the collage making
Image 2: A deaf girl from India presented her artwork through sign language
2. Talk Sections delivered by Dr. Vo Hoang Yen – the Founder and Executive director of the Disability Research and Capacity Development Center (DRD) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tam – the President of the Youth with Disabilities Club in Nam Dinh province.
Image 3: Dr. Vo Hoang Yen shared her journey in disability activism
3. Reflection on the participants’ leadership journeys
The participants showed great commitment and dedication to their learning journeys, engaging in different forms of knowledge production through art-making, music performance, and community building. They reflected on multiple barriers they had encountered and how this may set them up for their journey to activism. The young leaders also imagined their leadership futures to prepare themselves for change in their schools and communities.
Image 4: A girl with disabilities from South Africa shared her leadership roadmap for the future
Image 5: At the end of the day, all participants joined a city tour in Hue city