‘How disabled persons can discover talents’
From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Members of the women wing of the Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), in Ebonyi State have been urged to utilize their natural endowments rather than begging.
Director, Department of Legal Drafting and Law Review, Ebonyi State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Nnenna Elekwa who stated this during the 2024 August meeting in Abakaliki, charged them to acquire skills capable of making them fend for themselves, stressing that street begging limits their potentials.
She said that her office was facilitating a law to protect the interest of the special group.
According to her, the bill presently awaiting the governor’s approval for its passage into law would protect them from all forms of discrimination, politically and otherwise: “The essence of the bill is to integrate them into the society and enable them enjoy all their rights and privileges in all aspects involving education, employment, social, cultural and other areas.
“It is a known fact that the disabled persons are discriminated by the society that we live but the law, if passed into law will really control the boundary.”
She disclosed that there would be certification to ascertain fake disabled persons in the state once the bill was passed into law while provision for sign language interpreters together with assisting devices in airport, hospitals and other sensitive places would be made to enable them have access to various facilities.
Women leader of JONAPWD, Mrs. Brenda Ugwu, applauded the partners for providing them with the opportunity to examine their health at the event: “If we were to go to hospitals, it would have been difficult because of the nature of the buildings, the height of the beds and expensive mostly pertaining to our condition.”
She disclosed that the teachings had exposed them to many things concerning their health, rights and privileges and appealed for inclusiveness in other aspects of governance.
Project Lead for Hope Inspired Foundation for Women and Youths with Disabilities, Esther Nwite regretted that Ebonyi is the only state in the South East that has not domesticated the Disability Act. She charged the government to do the needful for the protection of their rights.
