womens Leadership & Empowerment & Ending all forms of violence to women and girls with disabilities in Fiji within the pacific region



Lanieta Tuimabu is an advocate for people with disabilities and is working towards changing the attitude of people in the communities towards inclusivity
and lobbying the State to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Being involved with the Disabled People’s Organisations since
high school, Lanieta has been able to not only gather support of her family and friends but also develop her leadership capacity and skills. She is the
Office Manager at the Fiji Disabled People’s Federation (FDPF), an organisation that is run and managed by people with disabilities. FDPF is the umbrella
organisation with 16 branches in Fiji including in Taveuni, Buca Bay Savusavu, Vuya Bua, Labasa, Serua, Sigatoka, Nadi, Lautoka Yasawa, Ba, Rakiraki, Rewa,
Tailevu South, Tailevu North and Rukuruku Levuka and Tavua. FDPF also includes four affiliates of specific interests –Fiji Association of the Deaf, Spinal
Injuries Association, Psychiatric Survivors Association, and United Blind Persons of Fiji). During her early primary school, she had lost her eye-sight
to Meningitis and she attended the Fiji School for the Blind up until Class 5. She was then sent to a mainstream school to complete her primary education.
Whilst she still was too young to understand that the eyesight was permanently gone, her childhood was filled with love and care from her family together
with discrimination in schools due to a lack of inclusivity. When she reached high school, she attended a boarding school where she was not accepted by
the Principle due to fear of security risks for a girl who has visual impairment, but was only admitted after recommendation and responsibility of the
Vice Principal. Lanieta finally accepted the blindness and immediately felt that a burden was lifted and by the age of 12 she was doing really well in
her studies. She also received prizes in school for overall achievements. The journey continued for Lanieta as she continuously received support and encouragement
from her school teachers, family and the breakthrough was when she became a member of the United Blind Persons of Fiji and their President in the 1990’s
– Mr Setareki Macanawai – became her mentor. He also encouraged Lanieta to actively get involved in the governance of the organisation. Working with the
DPOs and PLWD since her high school, Lanieta has come a long way and each day is an expansion of her knowledge and experience as she continues her advocacy.
Her strength comes from her family and the acceptance of her disability and the support of her colleagues. Today her work involves not only working with
one disability group but work with all the DPOs in Fiji and work across the board in terms of disability. Her advocacy has become stronger as she continues
on expanding the knowledge and experience and to see across the board in terms of disability and by being a strong advocate on disability – not focusing
on own disability. For example, she worked together with the Pacific Disability Forum during the development of the Toolkit on EVAWG and provided her support
in gathering the case studies and conducting the survey. She feels that having the case studies published in an actual training toolkit is an achievement
because it is so difficult for women with disabilities to share their stories due to multiple layers of discrimination they face in the society. During
the field testing of the Toolkit, hearing from the participants, on how they will be making some positive changes in their communities towards PWD – eg
pastors, village nurses, health inspectors as some had been negligent in their roles. Lanieta’s passion to work in this area is very rewarding for her.
She feels excited to raise awareness on disability and the involvement with other organisations nationally and internationally enables her to link the
local communities with policy level discussions. In doing so, the disability communities do not feel isolated as they are not left out of the development
and discussions. For example, during the development of the Disaster Toolkit, the Fiji Government invited FDPF to have a session on disability in Labasa,
and Lanieta took this opportunity to invite the people with disabilities in Labasa and it became a consultation. Finally, she feels that the technological
development and access to this, has made communication possible, but it is still a long way to go, to be fully disability-inclusive. However, the work
everyone is doing will bear fruit in due course.  

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