Today marks another important milestone in our journey towards building a truly inclusive society for women and girls with disabilities.

The Human Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Malawi (WAG Disability Rights) through the Empower-Her Project successfully hosted a Bi-Annual Partnership Strengthening Meeting with the Malawi National Association of the Deaf – MANAD(MANAD) bringing together sign language interpreters and deaf women and girls to strengthen our collaboration and reaffirm our shared commitment to disability inclusion.

During the 2024–2025 pilot phase of the Empower-Her Project, we identified a significant challenge: many deaf women and girls gradually stopped participating in our community safe spaces because of communication barriers particularly the lack of professional sign language interpretation.

We listened, we learned and today, we acted!

This meeting was more than just a partnership dialogue, it was an opportunity to jointly design practical ways of ensuring that reasonable accommodation especially sign language interpretation becomes an integral part of all Empower-Her Project activities. Together we discussed how to strengthen coordination, improve accessibility and ensure that deaf women and girls can meaningfully participate in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention, leadership and community empowerment programmes.

We are proud to continue strengthening our partnership with MANAD and deepening our relationship with the deaf community in Malawi. Their lived experiences, expertise and leadership continue to shape how we implement inclusive programmes that leave no one behind.

As we move forward, we remain committed to reaching more deaf women and girls ensuring that every voice is heard, every hand is seen and every participant has equal access to information, services and opportunities.

Because inclusion is not an afterthought, it is a RIGHT.

A heartfelt thank you to MANAD, our dedicated sign language interpreters, the deaf women and girls who shared their invaluable perspective and everyone who continues to champion disability inclusion.

Together, we are breaking communication barriers and building communities where everyone belongs. Kynnys ry