Hello my name is Judy Heumann. I’m the Special Advisor for International
Disability Rights at the United states Department of State. I am here to encourage you to actively participate
in the online portion of the Civil Society Consultation, which will be held in June of
this year. It’s very important for us that the voices
of disabled people in Africa have a meaningful role in the final development of the action
plan for the Decade on Disability in Africa with the Africa Union.
We are hopeful that this online course will
have your active participation being able to be responsive to questions that are being
put forward so that there will be good preparation when you convene on the 18th of June. Thank you very much for your involvement. I look forward to hearing about the outcome
and I really do want to emphasize the reason that we are involved is to ensure that the
voices of disabled people who are representative of issues affecting disabled people across
Africa are fully heard. Thank you..