50 young men and women participate in “Wasla 2” training

50 young men and women with disabilities and without disabilities took part in WASLA 2 training within the project of improving the local response to the rights of persons with disabilities, implemented by SDF in partnership with Medical Aid for Palestinians MAP. The implemented training lasted for 7 days in row and came as the first station in WASLA program.

This training program comes as a step forward towards promoting the integration pf persons with disabilities and developing their leadership and advocacy skills among other fields. The training program has also aimed at building the capacities of people with disabilities and without disabilities to work together to advocate their rights through the implementation of digital advocacy campaigns.

The training program covered different areas, including life skills, human rights, and the rights of PWDs, digital advocacy and social media tools. These topics successfully contributed to developing the trainee’s knowledge, honed their skills and allowed them the space to new relationships and connections with people with the same objectives and aspirations.

The outcomes of the program were measurably successful, this could be noticed through the vital training environment, the impressions of the trainees and the impact it had on developing their digital advocacy skills.

The trainees have expressed their experience in different ways. Ahmed Abu Al-Jiddian, one of the trainees with visual disability said, “My training experience was very distinctive, through which I was able to hone my skills in digital advocacy issues. The most distinctive thing about the training was that I did not feel different from my colleagues and that, created an enthusiastic atmosphere and hence integrated each one of us.”

Ghadeer Al-Hor, another participant, expressed her training experience saying, “I was very happy to be a participant in Wasla. It added a lot of information and advanced skills, and the most important thing is that now I have many new friends. We have experienced together 7 enthusiastic training days. A day after another, our passion towards the training have increased and we are excited to implement advocacy campaigns soon.”

For her part, the trainee Razan Al-Sakka has described the training as “wonderful and special”. As she said, “We knew that nothing in the world can stop us from achieving our goals … the solution is always working together as a team, through digital advocacy we can deliver our voice and the voice of people with disabilities as social issues that concern the whole society.”

Ayman Abu Makhda, another trainee, has concluded by describing his experience and saying that he was “very happy to be part of WASLA because it added a lot to me, and made me discover things in myself that I did not know before. The training has reinforced my concepts and taught me a lot of things. I am thankful I was part of this special family. “

Yara Alzinati, Training and Advocacy Coordinator at Wasla Center, said that “this training comes within the framework of enabling and empowering youth to advocate for their issues, as SDF seeks to provide safe spaces for young people to express themselves, to work together with persons with disabilities for a better reality and towards a society that accommodates all. “

It is decided that the stations of the Wasla program will be complemented in several stages. Accountability tours will be implemented with decision-makers to raise awareness of disability issues, in addition to challenges among the participating youth in decision-making processes. Young people will also lead advocacy campaigns to be implemented on the ground.