As the disability movement keeps growing, increased focus is now being placed on training of young individuals living with disabilities in an attempt to mould youth leaders.

This was according to Mr. Ganesh Singh, a facilitator of a workshop held last week aimed at promoting leadership skills in the disability movement.

Singh serves with the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities and who lives with a disability.

The other facilitators, who have disabilities also, included Ms. Stacey Johnson, Ms. Rennata Ifill, Ms. Tiffany Ward and Ms. Simone Poole.

The facilitators are all young individuals who have made a difference in the movement.

To this end, Singh stated that the forum was necessary to build self esteem and confidence, as well as increase the knowledge of other youths living with a disability.

The importance of the venture was echoed in the support it received from other agencies, including the National Commission on Disability (NCD), Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO), Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG) and Help and Shelter.

According to Singh, the one day event at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, High Street, gave youths with disabilities the opportunity to become more aware and more effective in a leadership role for disability advocacy.

Among the topics discussed were ‘Human Rights’, ‘Dealing with Discrimination’, ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’, ‘HIV/AIDS’, ‘Domestic Violence’ and ‘Power Dynamics and Relationships’.

Given that leadership goes hand in hand with power, the latter issue, ‘Power Dynamics and Relationships’, was seen by the participants as essential to understanding leadership.

At the workshop, emphasis was placed on the many ways that power can be seen and how well these perceptions connect with the phases of individual development.

The participants were enlightened as they found out that power can either be ‘Power Over’, ‘Power Within’, or ‘Power With’.

‘Power Over’ was described as exercising influence over something or someone, and while power was cited as “a good thing”, it was emphasised that power will be seen in a negative light if it is abused.

The other view of power, ‘Power Within’, was described as the kind that is obtained when developing the inner knowledge, skills and confidence that increase the quality of people’s lives.

The last one, ‘Power With’, was said be achieved when working cooperatively with others. It was described as the power of human solidarity, of collective struggle for human rights and creative collaborations.

The participants maintained that ‘Power With’ was the most important, as this was the component needed to propel the disability movement and its cause forward.

In particular, ‘Power With’ was highlighted as imperative in asserting that persons with disabilities are not charity cases but people with rights and potential.

This potential to contribute to society, and by extension national development, was underscored by VSO volunteer Ms. Kristine Fonacier, who described the workshop as a session that facilitates enablement.

“The workshop helps persons, or rather youths, with disabilities to be armed with coping skills and knowledge of their rights so that they can deal with everyday challenges, such as discrimination,” Fonacier posited.

According to Ms. Beverly Pile, Administrator with NCD, discrimination is often seen when there is a search for leaders in different capacities and persons with disabilities are overlooked because of their circumstance.

She reaffirmed that persons with disabilities are capable of contributing to society if they are given the opportunity.

In this regard, Pile noted that the initiative was undertaken to ensure that the capacity of youths with disabilities is built so that they can be able to fulfill their potential.