Fifty women with disabilities from 11 African countries took part this week in the international seminar organized in Saly by the AHADI Foundation (Promise in Swahili). For several days, these leaders shared their experiences, affirmed their ambitions, and laid the foundations for a continental movement in favor of inclusive and participatory leadership.

For the founding president of the Ahadi Foundation, Deza Nguembock, these 50 participants embody a promise. "Women with disabilities no longer need pity. They must have a seat at the table for social, economic, and political decisions," she argues.

The programme therefore aims to break with marginalisation and open up concrete prospects for emancipation.

Coming from Senegal, Chad, Rwanda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Congo, Guinea, Benin and South Africa, these women leaders were trained around seven key modules: personal development, community organizing, economic emancipation, media training, personal branding, political engagement and citizen participation.

"Women with disabilities in Africa must stop being left behind," said Dene Maimouna, president of the Burkina Faso Albinos Association.

These 50 women now refuse to be spectators of their destiny: they want to build a future where they are agents of change in their homes, their communities and their countries.

Divided into working groups, the participants developed an action plan based on four priorities: combating intersectional discrimination, promoting employment, improving accessibility and ensuring the political participation of women with disabilities.

Regular monitoring is planned to measure progress and adjust strategies. The stated goal is for 1,000 women with disabilities to be sitting at decision-making tables across Africa by 2030.

The Ministry of Family, Social Action and Solidarity, a partner of the seminar, praised "the exemplary commitment of these 50 women leaders" and reaffirmed its desire to integrate their recommendations into the national social protection and inclusion policy.