Educating The Disabled Through Skills Acquisition

There is ability in disability has become a cliche of long standing. Apart from using it to encourage and uplift the morale of the disabled, it is a reminder that there is equality of persons before God. In this piece, KUNI TYESSI takes a look at education through skills acquisition and people living with Disabilities.

For some of them, disability was at birth for no fault of their’s, and sometimes not that of their parents. For some, it came in their innocence when they could hardly realise themselves and this could be through the dreaded polio, wrong medications, etc.

 The most painful of them all might be the ones that occurred during adolescent or in adulthood as the victims were once familiar with the damaged body-part and all of a sudden, other means are been devised for survival.

Whichever the categories, it............................

should no longer be tears, regrets, moodiness and self-pity as People living With Disabilities (PWD) and widows in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), will be taken care off and can smile again, thereby bringing the past of pain to a halt.

The Federal Civil Service Staff with Disabilities Multi-purpose Cooperative Society has taken it upon itself to put smiles on the faces of PWD and recently gave out relief materials and the sum of N8million to them.

At the Federal Civil Service Staff with Disabilities Multi-purpose Cooperative Society 2013 empowerment support for Persons with disabilities programme which recently took place in Abuja, over 300 beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the Federal Government, saying that they will ensure that they make judicious use of the items and money given to them, as part of the challenges encountered after the disbursement of relief materials is their inability to trade with the money which can be traced to inadequate training as revealed by the National Coordinating Chairman/ CEO of the Federal Civil Service staff with Disabilities Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, Alhaji Iliasu Abdul-Rauf.

 During an interview with newsmen, he stated that the initiative was an arrangement from the board of directors of the office to enable the People With Disabilities move out of the streets, stressing that if properly guided, they can fend for themselves without becoming burdens to their families of the society.

He explained that out of the sum of N8million given to them, N5million was to ensure that they pay their children’s school fees and house rents, while the sum of N3million will be used to empower them.

He revealed that the programme will be weekly events which will be done in all the geo-political zones in the country, adding that measures are already in place to ensure that the items get to the beneficiaries.

According to him, “we are just kick starting the programme here in Abuja, then we will move to the 36 states of the federation, already, we have offices in nine (9) states which include: Kaduna, Lagos, Cross river; Anambra and others. We also have officers in place to monitor the distribution of the items and to ensure that the beneficiaries get them”.

Abdul-Rauf further lauded the state governors, FCTA, Women Affairs ministry, UNDP and also other foreign donors for their support.

As part of its achievement, he explained that his office have provided skill acquisition programme to the PWD, rehabilitation and training centres.

He said “We not only empower PWDs, we have treated over 300 patients in the country, most of the PWD have gone for surgeries and it was successfully done by the Federal Staff Hospital , while some were referred to the National Hospital and Dala Hospital in Kano and we pay all the expenses. There was even one that was sent to Cairo for surgery and it was very successful”.

The chairman further advised the PWD to cooperate with them so as to abide with the policy which is meant to ensure that they stay out of the streets as already, two states will be selected from every geo-politaical zone to benefit from the programme. He said already, state government have been cooperative and have provided lands to serve as skills acquisition centres.

They were advised to make judicious use of the money, stating that if they are caught by the officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) roaming or begging in the streets, they will be prosecuted as“The whole essence of this empowerment is to take the PWD out of the streets and make them useful to themselves. They are Nigerians and have equal rights with other normal persons. They should not be discriminated upon, the federal government is doing everything possible to cater for them, we therefore advise that they make use of this great opportunity.

He revealed that already, three buses have been made available to take them around and also to the acquisition centres to learn trades.

“We have programmes for PWD and the widows every Thursday. Every Thursday we announce the names of the beneficiaries of our co-operative social responsibility support. Some people submitted letters that they cannot pay their children’s school fees; some can’t pay for their house rents, while some has no food in the house and many more other problems, we are taking care of these needs”, he noted.

One of the beneficiaries, a widow, Talatu Usman lauded the federal government for the initiative, noting that with the N250, 000 given to her, she will be able to start a petty trade as well as cater for her three children.

Also, Bala Mamud who is a cripple said that with the initiative he intend to go back to school to acquire his Ordinary National Diploma (OND) certificate while his two sons will go back for their WAEC examinations.

He said, “I am so happy with what the Federal Government has done for us today. Before now we were begging on the streets to feed but with this money, our lives will not be the same we must do something reasonable with our lives now”.

He however lamented that the country is facing crises of abject poverty noting that the money is only circulating within the top adding that the trend is not healthy for the country.

Apart from the cash, the items donated to the PWD include crutches, food stuff, cloths, soaps, wheelchairs and hearing-aids among others.