Today, our team together with our partners from DAPP Malawi visited Umoja OPD and Visually impaired workers platform OPD a monitoring visit under the U4ADP project.

The Umoja(unity) people with disability OPD (Organization of Persons with Disabilities) in Dzaleka Refugee Camp Dowa District was registered In 2015 a small group of people with disabilities began gathering in Dzaleka Refugee Camp. Umoja OPD has officially won an award as the Best Advocacy Organization in Africa in 2024. The award is not symbolic It is evidence that community-led disability organizations can perform when given the space to lead.
One of Umoja’s achievements is its school where every child with a disability learns completely free of charge. No fees. No turning away at the gate.

“My vision is to see Umoja become one of the biggest OPDs not just in Malawi but across the region,” Executive Director of Umoja(unity) said.

The Visually Impaired Workers Platform OPD was registered in 2018 to serve visually impaired Malawians in Dowa District community.The Visually Impaired Workers Platform has mobilized workers who were once isolated, creating a collective voice. Before this Platform many members were excluded from agricultural cooperatives and village savings groups not because they lacked ability but because of a false myth that visual impairment means inability to work.

Unlike a general OPD Visually Impaired Workers Platform focuses specifically on workers’ rights. Today Visually Impaired Workers Platform is proving that visually impaired workers are not waiting for charity but leading the fight for economic justice.

These two OPDs have directly benefited from U4ADP project and together, they represent growing ecosystem of disability led organizations in rural Malawi Dowa.