Associação dos Jovens Deficientes de Moçambique, the national disabled youth association, has more than 2,000 members throughout Mozambique’s 11 provinces. AJODEMO is only too aware that disabled young people are often marginalised and denied the opportunities in education and employment that are so important to their life chances.
AJODEMO is advocating for better services for disabled youth in terms of education and training, health and rehabilitation and employment, and focuses on disabled people really knowing and understanding their rights and entitlements. AJODEMO ‘activistas’ have undertaken to visit each of the country’s 128 districts to spread this knowledge.
Their participation in the London 2012 Paralympics provided the opportunity to explore a partnership which led to three interrelated projects tackling the issues of disability rights, training for jobs and enterprises and government accountability for providing services and social support for disabled people.