My name is Nina Okorafor. I am a civil servant. I work with the Department of Social Welfare and in disability rehabilitation at the Accra Rehabilitation Centre. I have been doing this for the past four years as a youth leader and a young person with a visual impairment. I also work with the Ghana Blind Union and the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations.
I started my disability advocacy quite early while I was at the University of Ghana. I was into disability sports, and I got involved in disability advocacy because I studied social work. I got to understand a lot of what the disability issues in Ghana look like. I am inspired to do what I do because I have a visual impairment, also because of my studies. I have come to love this work so much.
Through my work, I have had the opportunity to be at various levels of the decision-making process. I am part of the youth and sports wing of the Ghana Blind Union, the Youth Committee of the African Union of the Blind as well as the Youth and Gender Committee of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations.
"As young people with disabilities, we are not just persons with disabilities. We are not looking for sympathy. We are only looking for the opportunity to be part of society because we are human beings too."
My work has been more about capacity building, sports and recreation, government advocacy, and implementation of governmental policies. As a leader, I think that some of the things I have managed to do are to ensure that my special sports team is always represented at every level. It has been challenging because, in an African setting, young people are not always listened to. Leaders always believe that young people should only be seen but should not be heard.
And so sometimes we need to justify why we need such a project, why our elders should spend money on us as young people, why girls should be part of a capacity building project, why Blind people should be part of a sporting club, or why an organisation should sponsor us to go and make a case.
