Info Minster Launches Campaign On Attitudes Towards Disables
The Minister for Information, Mrs Zita Okaikoi, has called for a change of attitude towards people With Disabilities (PWDs) by recognising them as social partners who have a crucial role to play in national development.
Mrs Okaikoi, who made the call in Accra yesterday, reiterated government's commitment and determination to promote and enhance the social well-being of all Ghanaians, including PWDs.
She said it is in demonstration of this commitment that government has set up the National Council for Persons with Disability to create the necessary legal framework within which the constitutional rights of persons with disabilities can be protected so as to enable them realise their potential and contribute their quota towards national development.
Mrs Okaikoi was delivering the keynote address to launch a six- month campaign to improve attitudes towards PWDs.
The campaign is an initiative of the Centre for Employment of Persons with Disability (CEPD), a registered voluntary non-profit organisation, set up to operate as a national think-tank with a focus on disability and employment.
Welcoming the audience to the ceremony, the Executive Director of CEPD, Mr Alexander Kojo Tetteh, said the campaign is intended to reach out to the communities by sensitising the people and inspiring PWDs themselves to take their destiny into their own hands by squarely facing the challenges that confront them.
Mr Tetteh said in line with its vision and mission, the CEPD facilitates the employment of persons with disabilities by educating employers, the public and PWDs.
The CEPD, he said, also offers employment services, provides skills training opportunities, training workshops on CV development for PWDs, as well as coaching, advocacy and lobbying for the necessary legal and administrative changes to smoothen the employment opportunities of PWDs.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, expressed regrets that despite the clear provisions of Article 29 (4) of the 1992 Constitution and Act 715 which protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, PWDs still face several challenges, including stigmatisation and discrimination.
Ms Bossman, therefore, pledged CHRAJ's readiness to join the campaign aimed at improving attitudes towards PWDs.