DISABILITY: Government must do more for PWDs

Aba Amegatsey, a Consultant with “Dislabelled”, a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) established to create career opportunities for people with all forms of disabilities has emphasized the need for government to invest more in making lives of persons with disability (PWDs) better and fulfilling.

She made this call at the Ghana Disability practitioners forum held in Accra over the weekend.

Madam Aba Amegatsey stated that during her personal visits to some government funded centers, provision were not made for people with disabilities.

It is against this that she called for more pragmatic effort from government and other key stakeholders in ensuring the said objective is achieved.

She indicated that, “Dislabelled” works not only with people with disabilities but with key stakeholders, parents, healthcare providers and policy makers to make sure impact of their work is strongly felt across the disability sector.
“Dislabelled has designed realistic programs and work with practitioners, parents, teachers and other organizations such as Hopesetters”.

She said that, the impact of thier work is widespread and further mentioned that over fifty organizations can testify about how thier training sessions have taken their efforts to the next level she added.

The Ghana Disability Practitioners Forum held at the Soronko Academy in East Legon, had three exclusive speakers on pertinent areas of practice that are of much interest to the participants at the forum.

Speaking to Derek Kwame Botsyoe, Mr. Prince Dagadu, an investment professional who engaged the participants on Financing, Funds Management amongst others, was of the view that many social enterprises do not take correct records of their finances and that affects their ability to seek funding especially with the impact funds that are available to them.

He said in his own words that “These organizations are not able to meet the criteria because the documentation bit is missing, many of the practitioners have the heart for the work and pushing a lot of resources to get things done, however the documents to use to secure these funds are not available”.

According to him “What I seek to achieve with my session is to teach participants how to keep proper records of their finances and feed them with information that are easily absorbed by investors so they can make investment decisions and make greater impact with their works” he said.

A session on “Developing your Practice” handled by Madam Regina Honu, founder of Soronko Academy, gave insight into her work at Soronko Solution. She says her organization assist girls to code and do other works with technology.

She affirmed the need for organizations to be strategic by understanding their respective markets and values.
Madam Honu, detailed her challenges as a female working in a male dominated environment and how men believed they could take advantage of her body and not her talent.

She advised practitioners to take their integrity seriously because it is key in dealing with partners and sponsors. She concluded with an appeal to participants to build bridges and not burn them in their areas of specialization.

Danielli Ofori -Atta, a creative Director at Mhoseenu took the final session on Branding and its importance on social enterprises. She was of the view that many Ghanaian companies’ losses out on major deals because of branding and presentation. She stated that organizations must be branded to tell the story of where they are coming from and the target ahead. She opined that a brand is not only about the Logo and that, branding must move steps above logos to make it more attractive to players in the sector.

“There is a need for content strategy and that will help you get more attention and feedback on your work” she concluded.
Some of the practitioners were full of praises for the organizers and believes impact of the training will go along way to improve their bookkeeping practices and also help them rebrand their organizations to be fit for purpose.

Source: Derek Kwame Botsyoe