On this International Day of Persons with Disabilities, observed under the 2025 theme Fostering Disability Inclusive Societies for Advancing Social Progress, I am pleased to mark the first anniversary of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s Project Oscar – Light For Life, a Neonatal Jaundice Screening, Treatment, and Kernicterus Prevention Programme, supported by our social impact partners Reckitt, whose achievements demonstrate that disability inclusion must be grounded in the very earliest moments of life.

In a world where persons with disabilities continue to experience heightened poverty, limited access to decent work, and persistent inequities within health and social protection systems, Project Oscar – Light for Life offers a practical, rights-based pathway to prevention and sustainable social development. By equipping primary health facilities with bilirubin screening and phototherapy capabilities, training 206 health workers, and engaging more than 81,000 mothers, the programme has screened over 7,000 newborns, treated 725 infants with a 97 percent success rate, and recorded zero cases of kernicterus to date. Each disability averted signifies dignity protected, human capital preserved, and the removal of a structural barrier to participation across the life course.

As the United Nations calls for strengthened commitment to disability inclusion across all pillars of development, this anniversary highlights how equitable, accessible, and high-quality newborn care forms the foundation of inclusive societies. Project Oscar Light For Life stands as evidence that preventing avoidable impairment strengthens families, safeguards future productivity, and advances the just, equitable, and sustainable world envisioned in the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy and the Doha Political Declaration.