In our recent weekly church website blogs, we have been promoting and explaining those missions and ministry groups that we support in our yearly financial budget, as well as with prayer. We have already looked in these blogs at Cornerstone Counselling, Restored Ministries, the Mustard Seed, Adeara Recovery Centre, the Pregnancy Care Centre, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (at U of A), and Gull Lake Camp (a camp run by our denomination, the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada), as well as our denomination itself. This week, we will look at the Disability Empowerment Foundation in Nigerian, headed by Rev. Stephen Shodipo.
Disability Empowerment Foundation (DEF) is driven by a vision of social inclusion and spiritual integration of people with disabilities (PWDs) in the church and community, and the promotion of their welfare and opportunities to contribute to their community. Our Foundation’s mandate, values, and purpose are focused on addressing exclusion, discrimination , barriers to participation, and support empowerment for people with disabilities. We run our mission through our projects: (1) Church and Community Disability Awareness and Education Project and (2) Empowerment and Skill Support Project.
In 2021, DEF reached out to locally – led ministries in Nigeria that serve the disability community through all-inclusive person-centered training and programs. For example, DEF provided a 3-day workshop for the staff of Divine Senior Citizens Foundation,which is one of the agencies of PWDs in Ibadan, Nigeria. This centre serves over 45 residents with various disabilities, ranging from autism and down syndrome to physical and learning disabilities. During this 3 -day workshop, DEF also provided food items to support the agency in the provision of quality of life, good health, and wellbeing for their residents.
Early 2022, DEF through its Disability Awareness Campaign at Baptist College of Theology, Igede Ekiti, Ondo State, created a platform that led to the opening of opportunities for disabled persons who have received a call to be trained at the college as Pastors. The campaign also engendered the college movement to remove barriers, change attitudes, and raise awareness of the potentials of PWDs for ministries and community development.
In July of the same year 2022, DEF held the first Disability Awareness and Inclusion Conference (DAIC 2022) at the Premier University, Ibadan, Nigeria. The Conference focused on redefining Church culture of inclusion and embracing friendship with PWDs. It was attended by church leaders and workers, health care professionals, government, and non-governmental agencies across Ibadan City.
Early in the year 2023, DEF, through the help of its partners, provided skill acquisition equipment: sewing machines, laptops with a colour LaserJet printer, and barbing equipment valued at about N3million ($2,847.12) to the School for the Mentally and Physically Challenged in Akure, Ondo State. (See the picture above). The equipment continues to be used by the students of the school for their skill acquisition and capacity building. In the same year 2023, DEF organised another statewide disability awareness and inclusion conference in Lagos, Nigeria. The Conference uplifted the stories and experiences of people impacted with disabilities who have been working as special educators, church leaders, Sunday school teachers, and counsellors. It also created more awareness about inclusion and equipped church leaders and workers with knowledge and skills on how to support and work with PWDs within the church and a wider community.
In July 2024, our Foundation, in partnership with Canadian Association for Black Health and Safety Professionals (CABHSP), organised a Capacity Building seminar in Edmonton, Canada. Through this seminar, faith and community leaders, caregivers, health professionals became more aware of exclusion and its impact on PWDs. The participants had a greater understanding of how to take action and work together to build a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community.
Our sincere hope is that each one of us will experience the joy of being part of an inclusive faith community and that we will be inspired to continue to partner with others to develop ministries of inclusion and friendship that come alongside all people who are loved and valued by God. Thank you and God bless.
