Persons with disabilities (PWDs) have called for an urgent employment scheme to help them manage their lives.
According to them, most of them were having problems finding work in both the public and private sectors, and those who established micro, small, and medium-size businesses failed.
They made the call during the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
The Day, commemorated by Smiles of Hope in partnership with Legs4Africa, brought together the various groups of the PWDs who shared their perspectives on issues of climate change, peace and security and job opportunities.
“There should be a policy, a compulsion that demands that public and private organisation must at least employ 1 per cent of people living with disabilities. People are not obliged to employ us,” said Zeenat Adams, Secretary to the Executive Director, Ghana Association of Persons with Albinism.
According to her, such policy must impose a responsibility on enterprises to hire PWDs with adequate talents and to map a clear path for their socioeconomic growth so that they can be useful rather than a burden on families and society.
Madam Sylvia Ama Frimponmaa Asare, a diabetic amputee, and a counselor, disclosed in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that many PWDs had no source of income to maintain body and soul together, let alone take care of their health conditions.
“Since there are no jobs for most PWDs to take care of themselves, we need frequent donations on our test strips and glucometer especially those of us who are diabetic. We also need subsidies on our drugs from the Government, stakeholders, and NGO to support us,” she said
Madam Asare said that most people with disabilities had stopped taking their medications due to financial constraints, adding that “we keep eating and there are no drugs to take the sugar from the food we eat.” It’s a battle for life and death.”
Mrs. Adzo Valeria Adzatia, Director of Smiles of Hope, told the GNA that the conditions required for people with disabilities to perform their jobs were insufficient for them to be productive.
She said the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2006, Act 715 had become a mirage because most structures in the country were not in compliance with the Act’s provisions.
“For instance, amputations happen at the hospital, and shockingly, when you have to access facilities in the hospitals for health care, you are not able to do so because of staircases,” she said.