20 Honoured at Lepers Aid committee Awards night
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has called on stakeholders to crusade against the stigmatisation of people with disabilities.
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“As a country we have not done enough for the less privileged. Even though there are many civil societies and advocacy groups springing up, the stigmatisation of people with disabilities is becoming worse every day,”
Speaking at this year’s Lepers Aid Committee Awards night in Accra, Nana Oye Lithur said until stakeholders joined forces to fight against “this social canker for people with special needs to be understood”.
Twenty distinguished personalities were honoured for their contribution towards the livelihood of the less privileged. They were given plaques and certificates.
According to Nana Oye Lithur, since most of the less privileged people in the country were neglected, it was imperative for advocacy groups to come together and educate Ghanaians on the need to see these people as potential world-changers.
Commenting on the awards, she lauded the Lepers Aid Committee for their consistent efforts to promote the issues that affect lepers, adding that the inputs of the committee had impacted immensely on the issues of disability in the country.
“We need to recognise the effort of the people whose work has helped improve the less privileged .There is nothing we can give to humanity more than respect and dignity,” Nana Oye said.
The Chairman of the Lepers Aid Committee, Fr Andrews Campbell, appealed to the government to increase its budgetary support for the less privileged.
He said out of the six leprosariums in the country, it was only Weija Leprosarium in Accra, which could boast good facilities, stressing “the remaining 865 lepers are left with little to depend on”.
He complained that some of the old run-down building’s which had housed the lepers over the years had not seen any renovation.
By Dominic MosesAwiah/Daily Graphic/Ghana