Giving a Voice to All Future Generations
With USAID support, a youth disability rights activist builds inclusive electoral processes in Guyana
In Guyana, a chance meeting sparked a chain of events that sent Rosemarie Ramitt on a path she’d never imagined.
“Twelve years ago, a disability rights advocate said to me, ‘You have incredible potential, and I do not want to see you waste it,’” Rosemarie recalled.
At the age of 13, Rosemarie suddenly began losing her vision. No longer able to see the chalkboard or read her textbooks at school, and unaware of any support services, she eventually dropped out and spent two years at home because she and her parents thought that was her only option. With limited access to resources, Rosemarie decided to take action.
“I got involved in disability rights advocacy because I believed, at the time, that my life was over. I am passionate about … not wanting other people to go through the same thing or to believe the same thing,” she said.
During the next two years, Rosemarie spent much of her time at doctors’ appointments. She traveled with her uncle’s family to Brazil to seek further medical treatment and had two eye surgeries. But she returned home after the doctors told her there was nothing more they could do to prevent vision loss.
A few months after Rosemarie returned to Guyana, her father registered her with the National Commission on Disability, and only then did she discover the Guyana Society for the Blind, which offers various training and educational programs for people who are blind or partially blind. Through the society, she was eventually able to complete her secondary education.
Rosemarie’s personal experience confronting the historically limited access that persons with disabilities experience in Guyana inspired her to focus all her energy on disability rights advocacy.
“Discrimination, ableist views, and microaggressions still make it difficult for young people with disabilities to be meaningfully included in human rights [work], especially because their political rights are often denied,” Rosemarie noted. “This is why I work to ensure that inclusive spaces [have] representation by young persons with disabilities.”
When Guyana held local elections in June, Rosemarie who is now 28, and a member of the Guyana Council of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities, experienced a powerful change that had little to do with the political candidates themselves.
“I would say that this [election] was the first time people with disabilities have been actively involved from the beginning of the election period until the end,” Rosemarie says.
Prior to the elections, Rosemarie and her colleagues participated in the USAID-supported Youth Advocacy, Linkages, Leadership in Elections and Society (Youth ALLIES) program, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Youth ALLIES works closely with young people and Guyanese stakeholders across the country to provide youth with the skills and knowledge they need to strengthen democracy by increasing political participation and making democratic systems more accessible.
Through Youth ALLIES, Rosemarie learned about voter registration at meetings with the elections commission, worked with the chief elections officer to amplify voter education campaigns across the country, and engaged the public to increase awareness and understanding about voters’ rights. She and her colleagues also focused on visiting various schools for students with disabilities and increasing young people’s knowledge of accessible voting methods for persons with disabilities.
During this voter education campaign, they came to understand that Guyana’s electoral system needed to serve persons with diverse disability-related needs, so they worked to confirm that messaging was tailored to the access needs of persons with, including people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, and people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or partially sighted.
During this time, Rosemarie also became passionate about ensuring equitable access to the country’s electoral system for persons with disabilities, especially young persons with disabilities.
Ahead of the elections, members of the council monitored the internet for disinformation aimed at sowing distrust in electoral results. And they found it. To counter such disinformation, Rosemarie and her colleagues developed messages correcting the facts on various online platforms.
In addition to voter education, persons with disabilities also conducted their first voter observation mission in Guyana. Volunteers visited nearly 550 polling stations — more than a third of all the polling stations in the country — with checklists designed to monitor accessibility. Rosemarie said they shared their observations with the elections commission to tell them how the country’s elections could be made more inclusive. In fact, she said she is currently “sitting on mountains of data” that she plans to transform into lessons learned for the commission.
In recognition of Rosemarie’s leadership, she was invited by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS), of which IFES is a core partner, to join the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) Cross-Sectoral Initiative (CSI) Youth Advisory Group, implemented under USAID’s Democratic Elections and Political Processes cooperative agreement.
This past June, Rosemarie was one of five Youth Advisory Group members who participated in a working session of the DRG CSI Youth Advisory Group in Washington, D.C. Rosemarie says that working with her colleagues had given her room to grow as a leader.
She called the experience “invigorating” and said it reinforced for her that when young people are presented with meaningful opportunities, they are eager to get involved. When asked what her biggest takeaway was from the initiative, she explained that she has set her aspirations on an even larger project.
“I am working on mainstreaming youth with disabilities groups within rural communities and I will be utilizing what I have learned, such as how to integrate cross-sectoral initiatives into those youth groups and empowering those young people to be able to participate more meaningfully in their communities,” she says, adding that she would also love to see more meaningful representation of persons with disabilities in public office.
As Rosemarie and her colleagues continue to make changes in future electoral cycles for persons with disabilities, they are confident that the momentum for their cause will build.
“We cannot do this alone,” Rosemarie said. “Achieving inclusion requires the commitment and work of all of us. No matter how small a part you play, it’s important, and all it takes is an intentional effort to include persons with disabilities in all aspects of life.”
About the Author
The Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening is comprised of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute and is dedicated to advancing and supporting democratic practices and institutions around the globe.
