Edna, 23, and Clenira, 21, are Youth Leaders from Cape Verde. They are both students and dedicated Special Olympics volunteers with experience organizing sporting events. For the past year, Edna has been involved with Special Olympics as a Unified Partner and Clenira has been involved as a Special Olympics athlete.

Edna and Clenira both have a passion for educating other youth on the value and importance of inclusion. They believe that solidarity and collaboration are necessary for social inclusion, and that personal and digital communication is an important tool for reaching inclusion.

More and more interactions are taking place on the digital web due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Edna and Clenira found that the lack of accessibility to new technologies is a global problem, especially in Africa and Cape Verde. They believe that improving digital web accessibility will prevent or minimize the social isolation of people with intellectual disabilities.

Over the next 6 months, Edna and Clenira will organize digital communication training sessions for young people with intellectual disabilities. They will provide tablets for the students, ensure that 3 local associations have reliable internet service, and arrange for a specialist on digital and virtual accessibility to educate and inform them about the benefits and importance of digital communication.

Edna and Clenira hope that the students will leave the training with a greater ability to interact with their families, friends, colleagues, and society in general by using digital and virtual technologies!