Differently Abled but Accepted: Celebrating PWD Day, UCA took to the Oval with an ‘Inclusive’ Themed Cricket game

As they joined the rest of the World to celebrate the PWD Day, the Uganda Cricket Association (UCA)`s day started with a series of warm up sessions at their home in Lugogo Cricket Oval.

The Uganda national Cricket team took the teams of persons with Disabilities and the local Sports Media through warm-up drills that prepared them for competitive matches that were played later on the day.

There was no better way than for UCA celebrating the day but doing it with a Cricket game that was graced by the National Youth MP Phiona Nyamutoro as Guest of Honour and Kampala Youth Lord Councilor Allan Mwesige, who were seen cheering up the game in every detail. At the end of the day, the Aces lead by skipper Ali Vakeshi celebrated the trophy as champions after they beat the Beasts in an inclusivity cricket game action.

The day that celebrates and/or observes persons with disabilities aims at promoting an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. So, the Cricket game gesture was a move by the Uganda Cricket body-UCA to have the other people who are differently abled to be accepted and included in the sport. 

The day celebrated every 3rd of December every year, this time involved leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post-COVID-19 world. Disability inclusion, an essential condition to upholding human rights, sustainable development, and peace and security. 

It is also central to the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind. The commitment to realizing the rights of persons with disabilities is not only a matter of justice; it is an investment in a common future.

The global crisis of COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing the extent of exclusion and highlighting that work on disability inclusion is imperative. People with disabilities—one billion people— are one of the most excluded groups in our societies and are among the hardest hit in this crisis in terms of fatalities.

Even under normal circumstances, persons with disabilities are less likely to access health care, education, employment and to participate in the community. An integrated approach is required to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind.

Disability inclusion will result in a COVID-19 response and recovery that better serves everyone, more fully suppressing the virus, as well as building back better. It will provide for more agile systems capable of responding to complex situations, reaching the furthest behind first.

The Disability Inclusion Strategy

When launching the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy in June 2019, the Secretary-General stated that the United Nations should lead by example and raise the Organization’s standards and performance on disability inclusion—across all pillars of work, from headquarters to the field.  

The Strategy provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations. Through the Strategy, the United Nations system reaffirms that the full and complete realization of the human rights of all persons with disabilities is an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In October 2021, the Secretary-General submitted his second report on steps taken by the UN system to implement the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy in 2020.  Given the impact of the COVID-19 on persons with disabilities, the report also contains a brief reflection on disability-inclusive COVID-19 response and recovery.