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A section of persons with disabilities who are unemployed were at the offices of the newly created National Council on Disability to have an interface with the chairman on their plight. They took turns to narrate how after acquiring various educational qualifications, they have had to be moving from office to office in search of jobs to no avail.
Festus Agbenyezi is a blind graduate of the University of Ghana. Whilst at the university, he was instrumental in getting the authorities to make available, Assistive Technology Laboratory of some 20 computers for use by disabled students. Upon his graduation in 2006, he was taken on at the same centre as an ICT Instructor for his National Service. He was however not retained after the one year period of National Service elapsed. He has since remained jobless.
Robert Amegashie a well built physically challenged graduated from the University of Cape Coast in 2007 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree but has since remained jobless. "Meanwhile I have been blessed with two sets of twins, including my first born, making five," he tells yours truly whilst rushing out of his file a well kept picture of five beautiful looking children. His children's school fees have been a headache for him. They are always sacked for school fees, he says. But he does not even feel dignified to be depending on the benevolence of friends and family these days.
Alem Mumuni is a disabled cyclist. He participated in an international cycling competition in Niger recently and won gold in Ghana's name. He said he was yet to get someone to formally accept the prize and pat him on the back for a job well done. He spoke very passionately about how in spite of their disabilities, sports could have been used to wean some of them off the enfeebling hands of poverty.
After listening to several of the affecting stories, the Chairman of the National Council on Disability Mr. Andrews Okaikoi identified very much with the concerns raised since as a disabled person himself, he had had to rely solely on his own initiative for employment over the years.
He however assured members of the disabled community that the council is putting plans in place to address some of the most nagging challenges it. He therefore called on the various groupings of the disabled community to come together so as to be able to present a united front is seeking redress to their challenges.
In an interview with Public Agenda, Mr. Okaikoi said funding remains the number one challenge facing the council even in these early days of its establishment. Budgetary allocations made in the 2009 budget for the running of the council includes Ghc18,000 for administration, GHc25,000 for services, GHc55000 for investment and GHc444,000 for staff salaries. He agrees that more funds have to be made available to the council if it is to ensure an effective implementation of the ambitious provisions in the Disability Act. But not even a penny of the 2009 allocation has been released to the council yet, he says. "I have been running the office from my pocket so far," he noted.
"The Disability Act of 2006, Act 715 says that "A person with disability shall not be deprived of the right to live with that person's family or the right to participate in social, political, economic, creative or recreational activities." Quoting from the above, the Executive Director of the Centre for Employment of Persons with Disability (CEPD) Alexander Kojo Tetteh said economic participation, for him, stood out since without it persons with disability stand the risk of losing their dignity in society. "Employment for persons with disability has become a hard nut to crack; this is making us lose our dignity and status in society. It is difficult to have food on the table, and that explains the multiplying of disabled beggars on our streets day by day." Mr Tetteh appealed to government, corporate Ghana, churches and individuals to consider employing persons with disability in their workforce. "We can contribute significantly to corporate and national development, if given the opportunity."
"According to the WHO, there are more than 600 million disabled persons in the world, of which approximately 80 % live in low-income countries. In most developing countries, including Ghana, disabled persons constitute an impoverished marginalized group, characterized by lack of access to public health, education, and other social services that would ideally support and protect people with disabilities. Economically as well as in social terms, disabled persons in developing countries are classified among the poorest of the poor.
People with disabilities in Ghana are often regarded as unproductive and incapable of contributing in a positive way to society, and rather seen as constituting an economic burden on the family and the society at large, which leaves them in a vicious cycle of poverty. In developing countries there are rarely strong disability movements actively working to improve the living conditions for people living with disabilities. Disabled persons are often only weakly represented in civil society and Ghana is no exception."
Credit: PublicAgenda
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