The awareness of reproductive health, especially for differently-abled youths should continue. Reproductive health and rights for differently-abled people are part of agenda in the International Conference on Population and Developemtn (ICPD). The result was an appeal to raise awareness for the fulfilment of reproductive health for all people without exception.
Based on data published by WHO, differently-abled people are more than 10 percent than total population. There has been inadequate access for the fulfilment of reproductive health education, thus many effort left to be done. Providing the right information would help the effort to minimize risks regarding reproductive health.
Kojigema Institute (KI) as a non-profit organization has been contribute to this issue by working with marginalize groups. This time in Visability Project (Visibility of Young People with Disabilities to Access Their Rights) collaborating with Bina Antarbudaya Foundation which fully supported by AFS(American Field Service) Intercultural Programs and YES (Youth Exchange and StudyAlumni Small Grants. KI starts Visability Project by organizing an interactive talkshow with themeCelebrate Our Different Abilities: The Fulfillment of Reproductive Health for Differently-Abled People. It is held at Di Lo (Digital Lounge) TELKOM Malang on Tuesday, 3 November 2015 and followed by more than 80 participants, consist of parents of differently-abled children, representative of teachers and special schools students, and public audience who are interested in reproductive health issue.
The talkshow presented by two resource person, Farida Candrayani as trainer from SAPDA (Advocacy Center for Differently-Abled Women and Children), also a member of FKKADK (Communication Forum of Family with Disabilities) and a women’s rights activist, Wiwik Sulistyrini. Both highlighted the importance of reproductive health education, especially for differently-abled, which should be tailored to accommodate their situation and level of understanding which different from the regular materials.
The interactive talkshow was started with Baskalan traditional dance presented by a deaf female student, Ummatul Chumairoh from YP2 special school. She showed that differently-abled people have many potential and able to present a wonderful art performance.
Visability Project is a one year collaborative work which specifically designed for young differently-abled generation to access their rights. The Visability Project series consist of four activities, namely seminar, flashmob campaignby the theme Dance4Visalibity, Art4Visability workshop, and exhibition which will showcase creative works of workshop participants.
“The objective of interactive talkshow is to provide information about the importance of communication between children and their parents on comprehensive reproductive health education. We expect that differently-abled youths will get more clear information about reproductive health in order to prevent any forms of violence, including sexual violence. – Ahmad F. Aziz (Project Manager VISABILITY Project)