Children and young people with disabilities are among the most excluded in Southern Africa. They are kept out of schools, left out of health services, and rarely consulted on decisions that directly affect their lives. In policy spaces — where those decisions get made — their voices are almost never heard.

SA-CYD works to change that. The programme promotes the rights and active participation of children and young people with disabilities across the region. It pushes back against the idea that young people with disabilities are simply recipients of care. They are rights-holders, advocates, and agents of change — and SA-CYD is built on that belief.

The flagship initiative under this programme is the #Inclusive Young Voices (#IYV) project, funded by UNICEF and implemented in partnership with national affiliates in five countries: Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi. The project targets children and youth with disabilities aged 15 to 24.

At its core, #IYV gives young people with disabilities the skills and platforms to advocate for themselves. It recognises that social media and online tools are where advocacy is happening today — and that young people with disabilities must be part of that conversation.

Key activities under the project have included:

• Online training of 20 Youth Ambassadors — four per country — in social media skills and disability rights advocacy.
• Youth dialogues in each of the five pilot countries, where children and young people with disabilities identified the issues affecting them and developed Calls to Action for governments and other duty bearers.
• Engagement meetings with members of parliament, ministers, local councillors, and other decision-makers, giving young people a direct line to those with power to act.
• A survey assessing how children with disabilities use social media for advocacy — generating evidence to shape how the project delivers training and support.
• Development of SAFOD’s child safeguarding policy, ensuring the organisation’s work with young people meets clear standards of protection and accountability.

Youth Ambassadors were also asked to present on the commitments their governments made at the 2018 Global Disability Summit — holding leaders to account in public and making the case for disability mainstreaming as a priority in their countries.

The project was designed as a pilot, with a clear ambition to scale across all 16 SADC member states. The model is straightforward: equip young people with disabilities with skills, give them a platform, connect them with decision-makers, and get out of their way.

SA-CYD reflects SAFOD’s understanding that the disability rights movement cannot be sustained without the next generation. When young people with disabilities speak for themselves — to ministers, on social media, in policy forums — they change what is possible.