Sundaymail Editor
Rudo Mandiro
WITH Covid-19 vaccinations being rolled out in Zimbabwe and around the world, People Living With Disabilities (PLWD) have raised concerns on how some of their peers are not being prioritised in the exercise.
Government has accelerated the inoculations in a bid to achieve herd immunity, which they believe will help restore some normalcy to the disruptions to people’s livelihoods by the pandemic.
It is the contention of PLWD, however, that they are not getting priority in the vaccination blitz and have called on the authorities to intervene.
Government, on its part, has taken the lead in various campaigns in both urban and rural areas that will raise awareness about vaccination.
Government has been engaging civil society organisations through various forums – such as the Disability Forum – over awareness about Covid-19 and the vaccination programme.
Samantha Sibanda, director of Signs of Hope Trust, which holds the Disability Forum quarterly, is working to augment Government efforts noted that lack of access to information on vaccination was one of the major challenges faced by those living with disabilities.
Ms Sibanda told The Sunday Mail that they have engaged the Ministry of Health and Childcare in raising such awareness.
“Our organisation has engaged the Ministry of Health in the past and our engagement is continuing. They have been to our disability forum where they were raising awareness about Covid-19, but as you can see the virus is developing new variants, so there is need for updated information.
“There are vaccines that have been approved in Zimbabwe, we have five vaccines that have been approved and yet information is not accessible to people with disabilities.
“So, our point of engagement with the Ministry of Health is to provide information to people with disabilities,” Ms Sibanda said.
She also spoke of the plight of the deaf in accessing Covid-19 information.
“We also have deaf people who are not privileged to go to school, some have no home signs and others just know sign language only without being really literate.
“So, they need to be educated about variants and about vaccines so that they don’t hesitate to take part in the exercise.
“Right now, there may be high hesitancy among people with disabilities not because they don’t want to be inoculated but because they lack the information.
“Just to know information like what a vaccine is. What is a variant? What is the efficacy of the vaccine (s)? All these things are needed for someone to take a decision on vaccination and which vaccine they will use,” said Ms Sibanda.
She, however, remains hopeful that more people living with disabilities will soon be vaccinated.
“We hope that with this information, we can push for vaccination centres for people with disabilities which are accessible and not crowded in which they can get service early and also we need to give the information to the people with disability so that they will be able to make their decisions on the vaccines they are supposed to receive.
“We are giving out information every day online and physically as much as we can. However, we need reliable information hence our engagement with the Ministry of Health and the city councils to ask for such information so that we can share credible information, which is really a challenge the world over.
“There are no guidelines on how people with disabilities are expected to protect themselves.
“We have a duty to help people, but we can’t do that without the Ministry of Health giving us proper information, we are working on it, and we wish that people with disabilities may be prioritised”.
Tongai Masungire who lives in Kuwadzana, who is deaf and dumb, echoed Ms Sibanda’s concerns.
Said Mr Masungire:
“It has not been easy to access information on vaccines as it is not available in translation.”
This general lack of information has made him hesitate to get a vaccinate shot.
“Since the roll-out of vaccines began we have been left out in terms of access to information and we need our centres where we can access vaccines as often times the venue is far and we cannot reach the remote areas easily.”
He also said persons with disabilities must receive information about infection mitigating tips, public restriction plans, and the services offered, in a diversity of accessible formats with the use of accessible technologies, which will result in a huge turnout of them in vaccination centres.
Mildred Magwira a resident from Warren Park highlighted that those with visual impairment are also facing similar difficulties.
“Additional protective measures must be taken for people with certain types of impairment.
“Rapid awareness raising, and training of personnel involved in the response are essential,” she said.
Online Reporter