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Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Reporter
PEOPLE living with disabilities are appealing to the Government to come up with a grant that will enable them to improve their livelihoods.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Bulawayo Disabled People’s Trust congress held on Friday last week, the organisation’s spokesperson, Mr Dominic
Sithole said people with disabilities were not proportionately represented among the world’s poorest people.
He also said they were faced with a lot of barriers that prevent them from fully participating in society on an equal basis with others and were most likely to face social exclusion.
“We are appealing to the Government to find a way of facilitating that people with disabilities are given grants so as to improve their livelihoods. The exclusion of persons with disabilities from all spheres of society is seen to be at the core of the increased risk of poverty for this group, preventing them and their household members from building sustainable livelihoods.
“In many settings, persons with disabilities are less likely to obtain an education — owing to constraints on access, stigma and a lack of support — and face reduced employment opportunities and earnings thus a grant would go a long way in ensuring that they are able to sustain themselves through utilising the financial assistance they will have obtained to embark on income generating projects,” said Mr Sithole.
He said people with disability were also faced with various challenges in accessing aid under Social Welfare.
“We are given letters to seek treatment and any form of health care at all Government health centres under Social Welfare Assistance but the problem we face is that we have to continuously renew these letters as they expire every month and this is a great inconvenience to most of our members.
Some of our members also face various forms of inhumane treatment at the hands of Social Welfare workers as some especially the visually impaired ones are subjected to all forms of humiliation while these people examine their extent of disability instead of accepting that forms of disability vary,” said Mr Sithole.
He said there were also a number of socially constructed barriers such as misconceptions about disability, negative attitudes from decision-makers and community members that hinder inclusion at various levels. Bulawayo Disabled People’s Trust is looking forward to constructing a pre-school in Nkulumane.
“We identified a piece of land where we intend to construct a pre-school. We have since paid for the stand and signed a lease agreement. We are in the process of approaching a number of businesses to assist us set up the infrastructure. We are, however, grateful to one businessman Mr David Moyo who has assisted us over the years,” said Mr Sithole.
Mr Moyo is the owner of Fulgens Enterprises, a milling company, the manufacturer of Lumelang Batho super-refined mealie-meal and Tholakele roller meal and also runs a chain of retail outlets trading as Injabulo Supermarket.
“I have over the last few years assisted people with disability. I have always ferried the food they would have received under the Social Welfare Assistance to their homes. Last year I also donated food stuffs to them when I was doing the same to vulnerable members of the community, which also included the elderly, widows and child headed families in Nkulumane,” said Mr Moyo.
He also donated the food at the congress last week. —@DNsingo
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