More institutions needed to support disabled persons - Rev. Mensah

The Deputy General Overseer of the Charismatic Evangelistic Ministry (CEM), Reverend Stanley Mensah, has called for the building of more institutions that support disabled persons.

He said the existence of such institutions in Ghana would not only help make them independent but also harness their abilities to enable them to contribute to the nation’s development.

Rev. Mensah stated this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the CEM organised an event to fete and provide medical care for thousands of persons living with disability within the Accra Metropolis and beyond.

Disability in the country

He said CEM’s decision to fete and attend to the medical needs of disabled persons in Accra alone was an eye opener to the extent of disability in the country,  adding  that his church saw a similar thing being done in London some years ago, so they decided to replicate it in Ghana.

 An initiator of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy, Mrs Hannah Awadzi, used the opportunity to talk to the pastor about cerebral palsy.

She said: “Cerebral Palsy is the single and most popular cause of disability in children,” and urged the church to extend support to families with cerebral palsy children, especially those in the rural areas.

Mrs Awadzi also called for data and accurate statistics on cerebral palsy cases in Ghana to enable the government to know the extent to which it affects families and  policy formulation, adding that, Ghana indeed needed institutions that would support disabled people, especially children, to enhance their lives.