12/08/2026
International Youth Day 2026
At Action for Differently Abled Children Network - SL Young People with Disabilities are Not Just Included, but initiating solutions, planning and Leading the inclusive change.
Today, on International Youth Day, we celebrate young people with disabilities not simply as beneficiaries of development, but as young people with ideas, talents, ambitions, rights and the ability to shape the future of their communities.
For too long, conversations about disability have been held for young people with disabilities, rather than with them. Yet when young people with disabilities are given the opportunity, access and confidence to participate, they bring perspectives that make our communities stronger and our solutions more meaningful.
Inclusion should be more than opening a door. It means making sure young people with disabilities can actually enter, participate, speak, lead and have their voices taken seriously. This means creating equal opportunities in education and skills development, employment and entrepreneurship, technology and innovation, civic participation, leadership and decision-making. It means removing the physical, social, economic and attitudinal barriers that continue to prevent many young people with disabilities from reaching their full potential. Most importantly, it means recognising that young people with disabilities are leaders in their own right.
The Sierra Leone Persons with Disabilities and Inclusion Summit is built around this belief. The Summit seeks to create a space where persons with disabilities, particularly young people, can come together to share experiences, influence conversations, build networks, champion their rights and contribute to practical solutions for a more inclusive Sierra Leone. Its focus on inclusion, empowerment, equal opportunities, rights, participation, youth leadership and meaningful representation reflects a simple principle: nothing about us should be decided without us.
As we mark International Youth Day, we invite partners, organisations, institutions, government, development actors, the private sector and individuals who believe in an inclusive Sierra Leone to support the Sierra Leone Persons with Disabilities & Inclusion Summit an initiative initiated and led by Young People with Disabilities.
When young people with disabilities are empowered to lead, inclusion moves from a promise to a reality. Let us not only speak about inclusion. Let us invest in it, support it and build it together.
Happy International Youth Day 2026.
Include. Empower. Elevate.
NCPD One Family People Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues-official SLUDI Global Fund for Children Restless Development Sierra Leone Nyapui Radio 106.1 FM Kenema Welfare society for the Disabled Disability Rights Fund
