This project heard from women with intellectual disabilities about how gender based violence impacts women with disabilities in their communities.

We worked with the International Rescue Committee to have inclusive focus groups with women with intellectual disabilities in Kenya and Lebanon.

We used the Listen Include Respect guidelines to make sure the project was inclusive and that women with intellectual disabilities could fully take part.

Our Goals

Our goals for this project were to:

  1. Hear from women with intellectual disabilities about gender based violence in their communities
  2. Get ideas from women with intellectual disabilities about how gender based violence response could be more inclusive
  3. Make recommendations to the International Rescue Committee about how they can include women with intellectual disabilities in gender based violence programming and information.

These goals are important because women with intellectual disabilities are usually not included in programmes that are meant to prevent gender based violence, and support for people who have experienced gender based violence is usually not inclusive or accessible.

Who took part?

Our members in Kenya and Lebanon were part of this project. They are both organisations representing people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

  • Kenya Association of the Intellectually Handicapped (KAIH)
  • Lebanese Association for Self-Advocacy (LASA)

What activities did we do?

  1. Supporting our members to plan inclusive focus groups based on the Listen Include Respect guidelines
  2. Hearing from women with intellectual disabilities in Kenya and Lebanon through focus groups
  3. Identifying recommendations for how gender based violence work, including in crisis settings, can be more inclusive of women with intellectual disabilities
  4. Developing resources about how women with intellectual disabilities understand gender based violence in their communities and how to include girls with intellectual disabilities in prevention and support programming.

Outcomes

These are the resources we made through this project:

  • Learning Brief on Gender Based Violence Response for Women with Intellectual Disabilities [Easy to Understand] – Available in English, French, and Arabic
  • Reflections on a Rights-Based GBV Response from Self-Advocates with Intellectual Disabilities in Lebanon and Kenya [Technical] – Available in English