While the world has been excited this summer by the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and in true communion with disabled athletes, why not extend this inclusion into the world of fashion? This is the project of the Ivorian association Les amis du coeur which, for the second year in a row, on November 14 in Abidjan, is organizing a fashion show: the “Handicap Fashion Show”. Ten able-bodied models and ten disabled models will present, together, at the Netherlands residence in Abidjan, the best in Ivorian fashion. Showing your beauty and dynamism where some only see ugliness and prejudice.
The Handicap Fashion show in Abidjan is a festive event that combines haute couture and disability. A fashion show open to all to break the preconceptions and negative views held by some towards people suffering from paralysis, an amputated limb, albinism or even autism.
« It’s a bit complex, when you are disabled, sometimes people make fun of you, sometimes they denigrate you, sometimes they love you, sometimes they help you. It’s really not easy, the life of a person with a disability to be accepted. It’s complicated », Nuella explains to us.
Singer from Yopougon, she is the organizer of this parade. She herself suffered from this stigma. Far from discouraging her, this motivated her to make things happen, among other things with her association Friends of the heart.
« It’s going to take as long as it takes, but we must not give up »
« What we shouldn’t do is really give up. Saying no, nothing gets done for us, so we give up. No, we have to make ourselves heard, it will take as long as it takes, but we must not give up. By being seen, by being heard, this is how inclusion will really happen and how we will show people that disabled or not disabled, everyone has the right to exist. . »
Exist and show up like everyone else and work like anyone else. Because beyond this Handicap Fashion Show, the project is to train its disabled participants in fashion professions: modeling, sewing, makeup or hairdressing… This is why renowned stylists in Ivory Coast like Reda Fawaz and modeling coaches like Maître Kassere immediately joined Nuella’s project to provide master classes.
« I asked a girl who was in a wheelchair to do a first test. And I assure you that when she went on stage with her wheelchair, it was extraordinary! It was moving…! We saw the public taking photos with these models. It was extraordinary! ». s’enthusiasm Cashiers.
« I hated myself, I didn’t want to live anymore! »
If there is one who thrives in this role of model – she is also a makeup artist – it is Yaba Zalissa Imourou. And yet: “ One day, suddenly, like that, everything changed. I found myself in an armchair. I hated myself, I didn’t want to live anymore! “. Ten years ago, this 31-year-old young woman was confined to a wheelchair due to poorly treated sickle cell disease. A handicap that did not prevent Yaba from being acclaimed during last year’s parade.
« It was truly wonderful. I have no words because people with disabilities are used to hiding… They (the spectators) didn’t expect to see a person as beautiful as I am! After the parade, I said to myself: “Ah, so I’m going to do something too, eh! Ah you see, we’re going to start something that will bring lots of courage to others.” They will want to show themselves too. And that’s it, that’s the fight! ».
A fight and an inclusion of disabled Africans who also go through employment. Often rejected from the world of work, the motivation of disabled people is nevertheless often increased to integrate even better.
Difficulty can sometimes give rise to over-motivation. Hervé Bernard is director of inclusion at the NGO Handicap international. His organization supports disabled people in Africa in social and professional inclusion. “ We also don’t want to build another stigma and another bias which would be “ultra positivity” or the disabled superhero. We also pay close attention to this. But on the other hand, it is true that any person who is struggling and who has difficulty finding a job when we reach out to them and support them, in general, these are people who are grateful and who understand these chances. But they are people like any other. »
No optimism therefore, in terms of disability, but a real issue in terms of social and professional inclusion. In 2014, there were an estimated 450,000 people with disabilities in Côte d’Ivoire. According to the United Nations, there are more than 80 million on the continent.
