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BLANTYRE, MALAWI —A trio of Paralympic athletes from Malawi, Uganda and the United Kingdom is advocating for the voices of youth with disabilities to be heard at the United Nations' upcoming Summit of the Future, scheduled for September in New York. Their campaign, with support from the international charity Sightsavers, emphasizes the importance of including the voices of disabled youth on the international stage.
Taonere Banda participates in 400 meters and 1,500 meters Paralympics races, and broke a record in 2016 to become the first athlete to represent Malawi at the Paralympic Games in Brazil. Husnah Kukundakwe is a Paralympic swimmer from Uganda. And Susie Rodgers is a former Paralympic swimmer for Britain's team, who competed at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
Sightsavers says the three athletes are spokespeople for its Equal World campaign, which wants the voices of disabled youth to be included in discussions in September about the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals at the Summit of the Future in New York.
Currently, Banda and Kukundakwe are in a camp preparing for the Paris Paralympics.
Banda hopes the campaign will address the stigma and discrimination people with disabilities have long faced.
"We are also human beings and we want to be treated equally," she said. "It's sad that we are often being discriminated against. For example, we are often sidelined in various developmental programs, including during the distribution of some relief items."
She fears that without such a campaign, people with disabilities risk, once again, being left behind, and that the Sustainable Developmental Goals will fail.
Banda said the summit should ensure that there are programs benefiting people with disabilities.
Simon Munde, executive director for the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi, welcomed the campaign.
"It's important that these para-athletes carry the voices of fellow young people with disabilities to the world leaders so that these world leaders, even our leaders from Africa, really champion the issues of inclusion of persons with disabilities."
Munde said it was high time for people with disabilities to have an equal share of the development cake.
"Taxpayers' money should actually be used for the development of the nation, or even the resources from the development partners should be used for development, but those kinds of development initiatives leave behind persons with disabilities," Munde said.
Last week, the Malawi government, with support from the United Nations, convened a high-level consultation with representatives from government ministries, civil society organizations, the private sector, academia and the media to prepare for the Summit of the Future.
A statement from the U.N. office in Malawi says the primary objective of the meeting was to gather diverse perspectives and input that will inform Malawi's position and contributions to the Summit of the Future in New York.
During the meeting, various issues were discussed, including those seeking to address the needs of youth and future generations.