A non-profit organisation, Savana Signatures, has joined the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s International Day of Persons Living With Disabilities (PWD) at Adidome in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region.
This year’s commemoration attracted discussions on the importance of the inclusion of PWDs in the fight against HIV/AIDS and sexual and gender-based violence in the district, as stipulated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, which touches on universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services.
The District Director for the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Mama Hodige II, said the law allows PWDs to have access to education and should not be discriminated against in any form.
“Everybody has a form of disability, disability doesn’t make a person incapable to contribute to society, but an opportunity to rise above the challenge life throws at us,” she said.
District Chief Executive for Central Tongu, Mr. Thomas Moore Zonyrah highlighted the need to support and make the country’s systems, particularly infrastructure, disability friendly.
He said the law requires the Ghana Education Service (GES) to make their schools disability friendly. He commended the GES in the district for ensuring an inclusive education system where PWDs are allowed to learn with able-bodied counterparts.
He commended the District Assemblies who support PWDs with funds to pay their fees, adding that the assembly in its bid to ensure inclusiveness, gives equal opportunities to persons with disabilities to take up positions within the Assembly.
He also condemned the actions of some PWDs engaged in selling equipment meant to support their livelihoods.
The Project Manager for Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), Mr. Elikem Agbenyo disclosed that Savana Signatures has over the past 13 years been promoting and advocating the right and well-being of PWDs across Ghana through various technological platforms.
He said PWDs can get access to reproductive health and gender-based violence information, counseling, and referral to health centers and social justice institutions at no cost via a toll-free helpline number 0800 00 11 22.
He noted that with the support of UNESCO Ghana and its partners, the YEP has implemented in the Central and South Tongu District to empower over 6,000 in-school adolescents including PWDs, with accurate and age-appropriate reproductive health information every month.”