Assembly sensitises people on Disability Act

Page 29, Feb 16, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Akatsi District Assembly in the Volta Region, in conjunction with the Department of Social Welfare, has organised a sensitisation workshop to educate the people about the Persons with Disability Act (Act 715, 2006) at a ceremony at Akatsi.
About 70 people with various disabilities and a cross-section of the people attended the workshop, which was part of the assembly’s efforts to protect and promote the rights of the disabled.
In his presentation, the Volta Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr Barnabas Adjin, stressed the need for Ghanaians to accept and integrate disabled people into the society.
He added that discrimination against such people would not benefit the country, since the government needed to tap the potential of everybody towards the country’s development.
“People with disabilities should not be disproved of their rights to live with their families and to participate in socio-political activities in the country,” Mr Adjin stated.
He urged parents not to hide their disabled children, since the education of people with disability in all public schools throughout the country was free.
The regional director said the Act stipulated that the Ministry of Health, in formulating health policies, “shall provide for free general and specialist medical care rehabilitative devices for people with total disability, including the study of and related matters in the curriculum of training institutions for health professionals”.
Mr Adjin appealed to the participants to help create the necessary awareness about the act to ensure its smooth implementation.
For his part, the District Chief Executive for Akatsi, Mr Anthony Kofi Abledu, said the assembly had taken disability issues seriously in order to protect and promote the rights of such unfortunate people.
He was not happy with the notion that people with disabilities were economically unproductive.
Mr Abledu stated that it was the duty of the society to assess the strengths and capabilities of people with disabilities in order to assist them to make decent living.