MOTIVATION
What you need to know about disability.
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Meet Ian Banda, Director/ Founder of youth in Action for disability inclusion in Zambia (YADIZ). He was Born with a physical disability but has never let his impairment define and limit him from unleashing his full potential. Mr. Banda has great interest in public speaking, poetry and comedy. He is also passionate about the rights of children and youths with disabilities and speaks out against Gender Based Violence. His leadership skills were spotted back in high school where he was picked as a prefect at kabulonga Boys and was also an active member of Youth Alive Club. As a young African leader, he was selected to be part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship program which is highly prestigious and competitive were he participated in the University of Minnesota’s Public Management Program. The program focused on public management and leadership across a wide range of domains, including policy, leadership, and networking where he strongly advocates for the rights of children and youths with disabilities. As a Mandela Washington Fellow he met and dined with different government officials in the U.S who are in the field of disability and human rights advocacy work. This gave him the zeal to do more on disability issues in the media hence partnering with ZICTA in promoting ICT for persons with disabilities. He is an alumnus of Young African Leaders initiative Southern Africa cohort 13 as a graduate in civic leadership where he joined about 140 other young leaders from all the SADC regions at the University of South Africa School of Business Leadership’s YALI Regional Centre. Mr Banda is currently studying Insurance at the Zambia College of Pension and Insurance Trust Where he is pursuing his Diploma in insurance. He is also a beneficiary of a scholarship programme by the Archie Hinchcliffe Disability Intervention AHDI that has enabled him to pursue his studies. He is a member of the youth equality disability pressure group under Zambia Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities and is also a member of the Zambia Disability HIV programme on the GBV project in Kanyama compound and director in the ministry of persons with disabilities programme at his SDA Los Angeles congregation. On 25th May 2016, Mr. Banda had an opportunity to feature on the BBC platform to discuss water and sanitation issues whose discussion was centered on how Africa would solve its water crisis.Recently he was awarded a training in London under Leonard Cheshire Disability as a youth pilot trainer to train youths with disabilities on how to write their challenging stories in line with Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4 and 8.Mr. Banda has aspirations of running for Presidency in future which he says will create a complete paradigm shift amongst fellow Africans.
