“My view of “people with disabilities” has completely changed after the accident; I thought that they had no rights, and that they should remain in their homes, but after my integration into this world, I discovered that a person with a disability can work and produce like others.”
This is how Fatima Al-Ahdal summarizes her experience to Khuyut as a woman who succeeded in overcoming her disability, with the support of the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, after losing her sight due to an accident in her adolescence.
Through years of perseverance, Fatima was able to achieve a remarkable success; She started as a secretarial and archiving employee with the Media Department of the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, then a marketing specialist in the Fund, before it was merged in 2019 with the Public Relations Department within one department.
In addition, Fatima occupied the post of the head of the "Hamzat Wasl" initiative for people with disabilities, and in 2018, she was ranked among the businesswomen with disabilities, and in 2019, she was recognized as the first blind businesswoman whereas in 2020 she was hosted at TEDx as an inspiring female figure.
Rafiqa Al-Dhamrani, another woman, who succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of losing her vision, and she also had an experience with the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, during a period of her life, until now she became a psychologist, and learned multiple skills during her journey with disability.
However, Rafiqa was born with good eyesight, and had nothing wrong with her eyes until a medical error occurred during two surgeries performed on her simultaneously in a Sanaa hospital, which later caused her to lose her vision. Due to being a blind, Rafiqa was late in attending school until she was nine; In her village in Yarim (Ibb governorate), it was not possible to teach children like her condition, although she had not yet become completely blind, but the teachers refused to accept her on the grounds that her father was not in Yemen at the time.
The percentage of people with disabilities in Yemen ranges between 13 to 15% of the total population, of which about two hundred thousand cases are currently registered with the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund in Sana'a.
By virtue of her father's work in Saudi Arabia; he noticed - in the diaspora country – they are teaching the blind which prompted him (after his return to Yemen) to search for a place dedicated to educating blind women, and indeed he was able to do so, despite the opposition of her brothers and uncle at first, had it not been for the insistence of her parents and uncle to enroll her in blind school. At that time, Rafeeq felt that life had become more beautiful in front of her.
Thus, Rafiqa studied primary school in three years, then completed middle school and high school with excellency. She also learned Braille language and typing on a machine, in addition to merging with other female students in the housing of the “Aman Association for Blind” until she completed high school, and immediately after that, she obtained a diploma in Sharia sciences.
Because of her academic excellence, she was able to get a working opportunity since she was in the middle grade at school; she was teaching reading to her colleagues in the blind association's housing. Later, she studied Psychology at the Faculty of Arts - Sana’a University, at the expense of the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, and because her university grading was excellent, she obtained several scholarships from the university to study “diplomas” in human development, business administration, secretarial and others, which enabled her to work in different centers and schools as (teacher, trainer and consultant).
Fund services and activities
“The launch of work in the fund began at the end of 2016. The situation was stable at that time, and there was no large influx of persons with disabilities to the fund, because they did not know about it. However, with the outbreak of the war, and the deterioration of the economic situation that extended to all segments of society, the percentage of people with disabilities being enrolled in the Fund has dramatically increased,” according to a statement by Dr. Ali Nasser Malggi, Executive Director of the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund to “Khuyut.”
Malggi states that the percentage of people with disabilities now in Yemen ranges between 13 to 15% of the total population, of whom about two hundred thousand cases are currently registered with the Handicap Fund, which has added to the pressure due to the increasing demand of its services.
Othman Al-Silwi, Deputy Executive Director of the Fund for the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, attributes the increase in turn out to a parallel increase in the number of disability cases, as a result of the “unjust war on Yemen, in addition to other causes, such as: malnutrition, accidents rate, lack of medicines, and others reasons.”
Al-Silwi reports that work in founding the fund began early in 2002, after the issuance of Law No. (2) of 2002, to establish the Handicap Care & Rehabilitation Fund, and its amendments in 2013. It exercises its functions and responsibilities in accordance with the law that regulate the work of the Fund, its regulations and executive bylaws.
“The Fund has its own mandate and duties, and the nature of its work is a provision of daily social service, as it constantly works to deliver services to all categories of people with disabilities, both individual and institutional based. The Fund has been providing prosthetic devices of all kinds, as well as medical and educational services. It shall be noted that it is the only model in the Arab region that works to provide services for people with different types of disabilities,” Al-Silwi added.
Automated system for people with disabilities
Dr. Malggi points out that the Fund has recently launched the automation system, through which the services are provided to the disabled, with the aim of reducing the loss or duplication of applications/documents or the recurrence of services delivery to some applicants, and to ensure that the disabled receive their services with ease and high quality.
Currently, the Fund finances institutional, professional and educational projects, through centers and institutions of persons with disabilities; it funds nearly 60 institutions and centers in the field of caring for the disabled in the educational and professional fields, noting that since 2021, the Fund has started allocating a budget to support economic empowerment in partnership with the Agricultural, Fishing and Crafts Committee, with the aim of empowering persons with disabilities - or their family - economically and technically, to achieve their sufficiency and self-dependence.
Moreover, the Fund also works in partnerships with government sectors, such as education and health, in addition to being currently working on developing a national survey in partnership with the Central Bureau of Statistics with a random sample, with the aim of obtaining a specific percentage of the number of people with disabilities in society, the causes of disability, and the needs of this group. In light of the outcomes that will result from the survey, the Fund will draw up its policy, sharing that data with relevant authorities of the state, which in turn can set its own policies for persons with disabilities and their needs.
Fund financing
"Yemeni law bounds the fund's financing resources from the revenues of some economic sectors, such as: cigarettes, cement, communications, traffic, customs, aviation...; However, the proportion of these revenues fell by half between 2015-2017, due to the war and the transfer of the central bank to Aden, at a time when the fund’s revenues during 2014 were about six billion riyals, when the price of the dollar was equivalent to 250 riyals, which is the same as the current ratio of the fund estimated at six billion riyals, while it was supposed to reach 12 or 14 billion riyals, due to the increase in exchange rates. Consequently, the current funding is insufficient, given that the Fund provides its service to 35,000 to 40,000 disabled person per year”; Said Malggi to "Khuyut".
Further, the Fund has branch offices in some Yemeni governorates, such as: Aden, Hadramout, Al-Hodeida, Taiz, and Ibb. However, some branches have disconnected from the Fund main Office in Sana’a, due to revenue problems and the current conflicting situation in the country.
Furthermore, Dr. Malggi reveals that the Fund has a strategy for people with disabilities at the national level with the participation of the state, and it has a strategic plan from 2021 to 2025 to 2030, within the national vision at the level of institutional building, automation, developing regulations, amending the law on the care of people with disabilities, amending the law of establishing the fund and improving resources.
The Law on the Handicap Care and Rehabilitation Fund stipulates that 5% of the total jobs in the public, private and mixed sectors shall be assigned to people with disabilities
Employment of people with disabilities
Al-Silwi points out that in the past, the number of employees of with disabilities in the Fund did not exceed three staff, but recently, the appointment of qualified people with disabilities has begun according to need, so that their number is now about 15, after starting the implementation of the Law on the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled, which stipulates that 5% of the total jobs in the public, private and mixed sectors shall be for people with disabilities.
Nevertheless, Al-Silwi does not hide his regret, which he describes as “the private sector evading the employment of people with disabilities although they are university graduates,” and this, in his opinion, deprives the “disabled” of their right to get a job if they are qualified. "I suffer from a physical disability, but I do my work like any other person; there is no difference between me and any healthy person, and sometimes the capabilities of a person with a disability exceed the capabilities of a healthy person, for a person is not with his muscles but with his mind," he added.
The same impression is shared by Rafikah Al-Dhamrani, who confirms the unfairness of employing a person with a disability in Yemen. "Not all people with disabilities get their right to education or a job, their rights are violated, and many of them miss opportunities because of their disability and the difficulty of their transportation."
Al-Dhamrani concludes her speech to "Khuyut", by emphasizing that she is satisfied with reality, despite all the difficulties she has gone through. Experience has taught her that the life of people with disabilities will not change without education and work, just as her life changed: “If it weren’t for God’s destiny, and my studies of psychology, I would now be in the dustbin of history,” she remarked.
