8. MEGAN SMITH

Sponsor Club: Eugene Metro Rotary Club, Oregon, USA, District 5100 

Host Club: Brisbane Centenary Rotary Club & Balmoral Rotary Club, Brisbane, AUS, District 9600 

Megan Smith is an English-American disability rights activist with a background in leading exchange and development programs within Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa and South America. Megan has worked for a grassroots non-governmental organization Mobility International USA, leading international exchange and development programs promoting the rights of people with disabilities and vulnerable populations. With a passion for implementing inclusive development practices, Megan has recently worked to make health care clinics and programs accessible to women with disabilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

Working with local advocacy organizations in Pakistan and with local women with disabilities, Megan conducted workshops, training healthcare providers and humanitarian aid workers in creating inclusive reproductive health, vocational training and disaster risk reduction programs. While in Afghanistan, Megan worked with landmine survivors in rural Ghazni, focusing on improving access to family planning and psychosocial support programs, as well as working with demining agencies in the rural provinces. She has worked within rehabilitation programs for imprisoned women with disabilities involved in terrorist activity within Afghanistan. While working within a community based rehabilitation framework, she collaborated with communities to identify areas that made women with disabilities more vulnerable to recruitment for terrorist or illegal activities. Most recently, Megan spent time with UNICEF Cambodia to support its disability inclusive programming. During her time at UNICEF, Megan supported the development of learning materials on disability inclusion, mapping disability related data and information on children with disabilities, and documentation of partners’ activities. Working closely with Cambodian ministries, Megan developed and led capacity building workshops for the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs on inclusive development. While with UNICEF, Megan contributed to important discussions in the office regarding inclusion and outside of the office initiated the development of Cambodia’s first wheelchair accessible tuk-tuk.