Still Waiting For Light

As we celebrate today’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we must pause and confront a painful truth that too often remains hidden in silence. While the world marks this day with speeches, hashtags, and well-meaning messages, many persons with disabilities are fighting battles that unfold quietly in the darkest corners of our communities  especially battles of neglect, abuse, abandonment, and deep injustice. For them, the night does not bring rest; it brings fear.

Across the world  and close to home in jinja persons with disabilities often face extreme vulnerability and exclusion. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 16% of the global population (roughly 1.3 billion people) live with a significant disability. Many of these people  irrespective of gender endure daily barriers to basic rights such as healthcare, education, employment, mobility, and social inclusion

But for disabled women, girls  and indeed for any disabled person  the shadows hide particular dangers. A recent article titled “What disabled girls endure under the cover of darkness” revealed how some able-bodied men prey on girls with disabilities, visiting them at night, impregnating them and then disappearing  leaving the victims abandoned, traumatized and often too frightened or confused to name their abusers. Studies confirm this painful reality: globally, children and teenagers with disabilities are far more likely than their non-disabled peers to experience emotional, physical or sexual violence.