Over 80% of Women With Disabilities in Uganda have no independent means of livelihood and are totally dependent on others for their existence and problems that confront them, the National Union of Women With Disabilities of Uganda has said.

betty, a Ugandan disabled woman

In a press statement issued today, NUWODU says this dependency is due to the fact despite the big numbers of women with disabilities,  their concerns remain unknown and their other rights unrecognized.

NUWODU says as a result women with disabilities face discrimination on three fronts, first because they are disabled, then because they are women and because they are poor since they are largely dependant on others for a livelihood.

The Union says that whereas the other women in the country struggle for equity with men, women with disabilities have to struggle to be recognized as women first and then as women with disabilities.

NUWODU says there is need for radical affirmative action in the country in relation to women with disabilities if the country is to fight the discrimination of this group of people.

By Zakaria Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media