Third batch of Asuogyaman PWDs receives packages

The third batch of 41 persons with disability (PWDs) in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region have received various items distributed to them through the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

The items include vegetables, provisions, table-top fridges, industrial sewing machines, manual sewing machines, hair dryers, agro-chemicals, cement, fishing nets, as well as capital to start their businesses.

International Day

The items were presented to the PWDs on the occasion of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is observed worldwide to promote the understanding of issues regarding disability and mobilise support for their sustenance and well-being.

Numerous challenges

The President of PWDs in the Asuogyaman District, Mr Eric Adza-Yawo, advised his fellow PWDs to desist from acts that cast them in a bad light in society.

He said it was a well known fact that PWDs faced numerous challenges relating to their well-being, as well as access to the resources of the state, discrimination as a result of their disabilities, exclusion from participation in decision making and the economy and virtual non-availability of opportunities for them to participate in leisure, arts and sports, which further worsened their already precarious physiological conditions.

He said there were almost a million PWDs in the country and numerous efforts to reach out to them through national response initiatives such as information, material support and food could have not yielded the required results.

He, therefore, lauded the government for its decision to resource them, both financially and materially, to enable them to stand on their feet and create their own businesses.

He urged PWDs to ensure that they lived decent lives that were above reproach, adding: “You have been resourced with what you need to do what able persons do.’’

Welfare of PWDs

The Asuogyaman District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Samuel Kwame Agyekum, said often PWDs were seen at lorry stations and other locations begging for alms, an act that lowered their dignity in society.

He asked PWDs to desist from that act and rather work hard, now that they had been resourced in order to lead decent lives.

He said the government had their welfare and well-being at heart and would continue to resource them, so that they could live comfortably.

The Social Welfare and Community Development Officer in the Asuogyaman District, Mr Bernard Jimah, said his outfit would go round to monitor the progress of the 41 PWDs to make sure that the items given to them were put to good use.