Mark Mapemba from Malawi tells us about his personal experiences participating:

Speaker biography

Mark Mapemba is from Malawi. Mark has an intellectual disability and is an active self-advocate, speaking up for his own rights and the rights of his peers with an intellectual disability.

In Malawi Mark has worked closely with PODCAM (Parents of Disabled Children Association of Malawi) who played an important role in supporting Mark to develop his self-advocacy skills. Mark served as a youth representative for PODCAM, mobilizing and encouraging young people with a disability to advocate on human rights issues, gender, and the CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability)

In 2012, Mark was co-opted into Inclusion International’s Council. Inclusion International is the global network of people with an intellectual disabilities and their families. Inclusion International work on advocating for the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.

In the last few years, Mark has travelled around the world, sharing his experiences and the experiences of others and advocating for the rights of people with an intellectual disability and their families. Mark has spoken several times at the UN on the rights of people with disabilities and their families.

Mark is part of Inclusion International’s programme of work on self-advocacy, Empower Us. Mark has trained self-advocates and their supporters across Africa as well as in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.

Mark is currently a Board Member and self-advocate representative for Inclusion Africa and a Council Member and officer of Inclusion International. He is a city councillor in Blantyre, Malawi working on disability issues.

Outside of his self-advocacy work, Mark is a trained film maker and has recently got married and had a baby.

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