My name is Mark Mapemba, I am from Malawi. I am a self-advocate and work as a project manager for Inclusion International. 

Inclusion International and our Spanish member, Plena Inclusion have worked together since 2022 to organise monthly online self-advocate meetings.

Over the last two years, this group has grown, and we usually have around 40 people join each month. The meetings are held in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. 

At the first meeting of the year, we decided on the topics we wanted to talk about during the year. We created an email group for all self-advocates in the Inclusion International network. This helped more people know about the meetings. You can join the email group by emailing me or Ailis.

We created a poster with all the dates, topics and links to join the meetings. We shared this with our networks. You can see it here for 2024. Each month, we invite self-advocate speakers who are experts on a topic.

Ana is a self-advocate from Plena Inclusion and a steering group member of the European Platform of Self-advocates (EPSA). Ana and I coordinate and chair the meetings. I send emails to self-advocates sharing the agenda, topics, and reminders, and then Ana and I take turns chairing the meetings. The meetings take place online on the last Thursday of the month at 5 p.m. Spanish time.

I think the participants enjoy and benefit from the meetings. We shared many topics that matter in a self-advocate’s life. They are learning how to advocate for and solve different problems they face.

Last year, we discussed cognitive accessibility, employment, de-institutionalization, independent living, CRPD shadow report, and personal assistance. You can read our report about last year’s work here. 

So far this year, we have discussed Legal capacity, SRHR, Political Participation, a History of Self-advocacy, and Inclusive Health. You can watch all the sessions in different languages on this YouTube playlist. 

In the coming months, we will discuss topics such as inclusive research, climate change, and political participation. 

The plan is to have more self-advocates join the meetings. The challenge is that we have a lot of self-advocates who want to attend, but because of time differences, it is hard for them to do so.

Even though we have the meetings in four languages, language is still a barrier for some. We plan to have face-to-face meetings. This will mean we can meet, get to know one another better, and have more time to discuss these topics.

These meetings have helped me connect as a self-advocate. It is very powerful when self-advocates come together and discuss issues that are important to us. Getting to know people from different countries and hearing about our shared experiences is great.  

If you want more information about the Plena International meetings, you can email me.