Abstract:
About 650 million people in the world live with disabilities and
frequently encounter physical and social obstacles. They often lack
opportunities of the mainstream population and are usually among the most
marginalized in society. Persistence of cultural, legal and institutional
barriers make women with disabilities the victims of two fold
discriminations: as women and as persons with disabilities. They are
ignored and discriminated by non-governmental organizations and even by
womens’ movements. However, they are in need of support and recognition
from the governments as well as from other various organizations existing in
the society. Various organizations the world over strive to assist persons
with disabilities to overcome the obstacles they face. The Abaditha Kantha
Sangamaya based at Anuradapura, Sri Lanka is one of them. The aim of the
study was to collect information about the civil society and community
based organizations in relation to women with disabilities in the
Trincomalee district. The objectives were to investigate the awareness of
those organizations about women with disabilities, identify the assistance
that could be given to them by the organizations and to find out whether
training is needed for the organizations to provide such assistance. The
design of the study was the descriptive survey design and a sample of 50 civil
society and community based organizations were selected. A questionnaire
was used to collect data. The majority of the organizations were not aware
about the legislations/conventions related to disabled persons. Almost all
organizations were willing to provide assistance to women with disabilities
in various ways. Prominent among them were providing loans, equipment,
health services and counselling, developing vocational skills, raising
awareness and empowerment. Only a very small number of organizations
had received some sort of training related to disabled persons but all
organizations expressed willingness to participate in training and also to
share the knowledge with others. It is recommended that awareness raising
programmes on the rights of women with disabilities should be conducted
for such organizations. And their training needs in providing assistance to
women with disabilities should be fulfilled.
