Government urged to ensure attainment of targets
Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) have called on the government to ensure that targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on accessibility and employment, are met.
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That, they said, could be done through opening up more employable avenues and also making public places more accessible to them.
The call was made by the National President of the Ghana Blind Union, Madam Aisha Ibrahim, during the celebration of the World Disability Day, held at Bole in the Northern Region last Tuesday.
“The building of a stable and sustainable economy is inextricably linked to the extent to which the people, including the PWDs in the communities are provided with the opportunities to participate in the decision-making process,” she noted.
Safety
She urged the various political parties to impress upon their supporters to accept the outcome of the results and conduct themselves peacefully before, during and after the general elections stating that being disabled persons, they feared for their safety should any violence crop up.
The Bole District Chief Executive, Mr James Jaaga, gave them an assurance of government’s efforts to properly integrate the PWDs into the society through the numerous interventions and programmes, such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), allocation of two per cent of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for Priority Intervention Programmes, and various tax exemption initiatives to those who offered jobs to PWDs.
Beneficiaries
He was optimistic that beneficiaries of such interventions would use them judiciously to improve their lots, indicating that disability was not inability and as such the government would continue to ensure that they were properly catered for.
For his part, the Bole District Director of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, Mr Stephen Mensah, said they had registered a total of 837 PWDs, comprising 401 males and 436 females in the district, and out of the total amount received from the DACF, GH¢ 76,370.00 had so far been distributed to 206 PWDs this year to support their education in various institutions, and also help them learn trades and engage in trading activities.
