Sayid-Ali Abdullah Salad: A champion fighting for the rights of persons living with disabilities

STORY: Sayid-Ali Abdullah Salad: A champion fighting for the rights of persons living with disabilities
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SOURCE: UNSOM PUBLIC INFORMATION
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CREDIT REQUIRED: UNSOM PUBLIC INFORMATION
LANGUAGE: SOMALI NATURAL SOUND
DATELINE: 8/NOVEMBER/2018, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
SHOT LIST:

1. Wide shot, Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, the chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council walking with crutches into the venue of deliberations on the new constitution
2. Med shot, Sayid-Ali walking up a flight of stairs
3. Med shot, Sayid-Ali walking up a flight of stairs
4. Mid shot, Sayid-Ali at the top of flight of stairs
5. Med shot, Sayid-Ali walking to the meeting room
6. Wide shot, Sayid-Ali past a room where a meeting is taking place
7. Close up shot, hand holding onto crutches
8. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, Chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council
“I saw first-hand how the community treats you when you become disabled. I used to walk, play football, walk long distances and enjoy life but all those became luxury when I became disabled. Stigma set in early and started to manifest in its various forms.”
9. Close up shot, hand holding crutches then panning shot to the face
10. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, Chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council
“You may have your money, you visit a shop to buy something and shop owner hands you few Somali shillings with the notion that you came to beg. It pains me.”

11. Med shot, Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, talking
12. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, Chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council
“My disability hinders my economic, social, education progression and participation in politics because there is no specific law for disabled people. The stigma against PWD is so entrenched that it will take a long time to be eradicated.”

13. Med shot, Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, talking
14. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, Chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council
“People living with disabilities (in Somalia) have the same rights as the rest of the people. We deserve extra and special care, we require specialised equipment, health care, access to education. My goal is to help them realise their rights just like the rest of the disabled people in the world.”

15. Wide shot, Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, talking
16. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad, Chairperson of the Somali National Disability Council
“Do not quit. Come out of your homes, champion for your rights since you are part of the citizens. Come out to learn, look for jobs, be part of the electoral reforms taking place, the constitution and participate in the advocacy to nationalise special education for the disabled people.”

17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sayid-Ali Abdullah Salad, Chairperson of Somali National Disability Council
“To parents, do not favor one child over another. Don’t confine the disabled child to the house. They are the same. The disabled one may even be more hardworking than the rest of your kids.”

18. Wide shot, Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad walking away, after the interview

Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad: A champion for the rights of persons living with disabilities

Sayid-Ali Abdullahi Salad vividly remembers the fateful day at the height of the civil war in Somalia in 1997 when his life was changed forever – a seemingly routine meeting to resolve a dispute erupted into violence that almost cost the volunteer peace mediator his life.

Together with other peace activists, Sayid-Ali, then a student at the Somali National University, had accompanied a traditional elder to Wadajir district in the capital city of Mogadishu to help mediate between two warring clans. They were looking forward to a positive outcome, but in the middle of the negotiations, tensions suddenly escalated.

“Things ended up in disarray. One of the groups became hostile and opened fire. The first round of bullets hit my right leg and shattered the bone,” Sayid-Ali, now 41 years of age, recalls.

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