How I Used the Social Media to Positively Impact the Lives of Women with Disabilities during my 2016-2017 Empower Women Champion Tenure

Introduction

The 2016-2017 Championship tenure was an exciting experience and a great opportunity for me to connect to other champions around the world through various social media options like Face book, Twitter and Slack. Participating in this tenure as a woman with disability gave me the opportunity to improve my confidence and self-esteem, meet professionals in all walks of life and increase my knowledge on women’s economic empowerment and ICT. The knowledge and skills I have gained through my tenure will benefit me all my life and bring great change to the lives of women with disabilities. Awareness of the cultural barriers facing women and girls is improving day by day, and my community has learned a great deal about the importance of women’s economic empowerment and their rights to using ICT tools building networks on social media.

Media’s impact on me and my community during my tenure

It has been a wonderful experience meeting other champions and professionals around the globe on the Empower Women platform, face book, slack and twitter. This has given me the opportunity to showcase my abilities, talents and potential, and I have also learned from them. My ICT skills have improved, as has my ability to use social media. Using Slack for the first time was so exciting and made it very easy to connect and publish stories and articles. It was a wonderful experience that transformed me and gave me the opportunity to introduce another social media platform among women with disabilities in my communities. Through the social media, I was able to link up with other local partners and stakeholders in development who were able to support my championship tenure project.

My project, \"Scaling up Livelihood for Persons with Disabilities through Soap Making\", in Bamenda II Subdivision, North West Region of Cameroon, during my championship tenure was in its second quarter and is successfully going on well. The project at that time (October 2016 – June 2017) had reached a total of 60 people in my community, who have been able to gain knowledge on economic empowerment through local soap and detergent production. The majority of these have been women with disabilities. This project was carefully chosen because it is very favourable to the environment; no waste product arises from the process to be dumped in our environment. For women with disabilities who are living below the poverty line, it requires very little startup capital and is not time-consuming (it takes a maximum of four hours for soap to be produced). The soap can even be marketed at home to nearby community members in the neighborhood. This project will continue for a long period, extending it to other six divisions of the North West Region. I also hope to provide startup grants to those who receive training so that they can set up small businesses for themselves to achieve a sustainable livelihood.

The role of the social media in this project is that

The media’s impact on my community has been very positive on the side of women with disabilities. Due to long time stigma, stereotype and marginalization experienced by women with disabilities, they are either relegated to the background or suffer from self stigma and shy away from communal live. Because I to chose to be strong and overcome all stigma, stereotype and marginalization, I took the lead to be an example so as to encourage all women with disabilities.

Because women with disabilities were not fairly represented in the media I made more effort for their representation to be visible within the local communities in the North West region, Cameroon and internationally. Through the creation of face book profiles, Slack and twitter handles for them they belong to groups on the social media which, gave them room to connect to their peers in the local communities and international friends, through sharing their stories, experiences and learning from one another.

I did not just create these groups but worked with them day and night to improve on their self-esteem so as to encourage their mastery on the digital tools and social media links. I taught them on how to;

• Post pictures directly for their smart and android phones through twitter and face book


• Create pages through their face book profiles, create photo albums, post and share whatever activity they do that can bring visibility to their life on their pages


• How to market their products and gain visibility on the social media


• Widen their networks locally and internationally


• Post advocacy messages like “ My disability dose not describe me” written on their photos

My achievements during the Championship tenure

My achievements have been numerous, from a start point of becoming more assertive to improving my ability to use multiple social media options, improving my self-esteem and improving livelihoods for women with disabilities in my community. I have made a remarkable change in my community, especially among women with disabilities, through the economic empowerment activities in local soap and detergent production for a sustainable livelihood.

Scaling up livelihood for a vulnerable population and for a positive impact to be measured in a short period is one of the best achievements of my tenure. As I have improved on my self-esteem and confidence, and become more assertive, I am now a role model to other women with disabilities in my community. They now have the courage to stand out, be assertive, push their way to the front line and showcase their potential. These women now have the courage to use public cyber cafes and create social ties through WhatsApp, face book, twitter, etc…

My most visible achievements are:

• I have become more assertive, more confident, and a role model for other women with disabilities in my community


• Some friends with disabilities in my community are interested in joining the Empower Women and World Pulse online communities.


• Many people in my network now want me to share the monthly Empower Women Newsletter and give them updates on World Pulse call for stories


• They have more interest to master how to use the options on World Pulse so as to be consistent with their contributions


• Through the use of my non-profit organization page to teach these women on how to post on social media, it has gained some credibility through the implementation of the first and second quarter of my project


• More women with disabilities are interested in becoming involved in activities for the economic empowerment of women and girls both on and offline


• Women with disabilities have learned about their rights to economic empowerment, owning businesses and generating their own income


• Women with disabilities are now involved in decision making for their well-being and for the benefit of the community


• Women with disabilities through my example are now able to write and publish their stories on the social media

“They now have the courage to stand out, be assertive, push their way to the front line and showcase their potential. These women now have the courage to use public cyber cafes and create social ties through WhatsApp, face book, twitter, etc…”

Challenges

My worst challenge ever during this tenure was when my region was deprived of the internet for three and a half months due to the ongoing “Anglophone Crisis” in my country. I felt like my hands, eyes, ears and legs had been cut off. I found it hard to actively continue my champion’s activities, and I lost courage. For continuity, my project cannot be properly and completely implemented if I don’t have enough resources, such as technical and financial assistance. I always need more help in these areas.

Despite the challenges, I was able to complete my Championship tenure and my story published on UN Women-Empower Women platform. Please follow the link: https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/community/stories/2017/06/becoming-an-em...

I am a role model in my professional network of disability and inclusive development in my community because the professionals were so impressed when I was selected as a 2016-2017 Global Champion for change under the UN Women-Empower Women platform and my champion in action story published at the end of my tenure.

Veronica Ngum Ndi

@VNgum

@cavp2377

Founder at: Community-Association-for-Vulnerable-Persons-CAVP

https://www.facebook.com/Community-Association-for-Vulnerable-Persons-CAVP

https://cavpsite.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/veronicangum.ndi

www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-ngum

https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/community/stories/2017/06/becoming-an-em...