Women with disabilities deserve scholarships — GFD
The Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) has prepared a six-page position paper on “Affirmative Action for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Ghana”, urging the government to give more scholarships to women with disabilities.
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It said it was aware that women generally were confronted with discrimination, but women with disabilities “face double discrimination” as a result of being women and disabled.
The proposal is in response to the government’s move to pass an Affirmative Action Law aimed at reducing discrimination and marginalisation of vulnerable groups, placing women, persons with disabilities, children and the poor at the centre.
The Executive Director of the GFD, Mrs Rita Kusi Kyeremeh, who made the document available to the Ghana News Agency, (GNA) thanked STAR-Ghana for funding the development of the paper and expressed the hope that it would lead to a change in the quality of lives of persons with disabilities.
Star-Ghana is a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism funded by the DFID, DANIDA, the EU and USAID.
Document presented to government
Mrs Kyeremeh said the document had already been presented to the government through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
The federation said the government ought to offer scholarships to women with disabilities, create other support platforms for PWDs and consider special arrangements for women with disabilities to pursue basic, secondary and higher education.
It proposed that an affirmative action that benefitted women needed to also have specific provisions for women and children with disabilities.
Affirmative Action Law under consideration
It said the government’s Affirmative Action Law under consideration should capture the promotion of improved accessibility of girls with disabilities to school, from the basic to the tertiary level.
The federation also called for maternity leave for women with disabilities to be revised from three to six months.
“Preferential treatment should be given to women with disabilities during pregnancy visits to the various health facilities,” it said, adding that appointment of PWDs to public office should also consider proportions for women with disabilities.