NGO undertakes campaign on disability

Inclusion Ghana, a non-governmental advocacy organisation, championing the rights of Persons living with Intellectual Disability (PWID), has begun a campaign for a change in the attitude of Ghanaians on the disability.

The organisation is mobilising people to become champions of change and lead efforts at changing attitudes towards PWID.

Inclusion Ghana, thus, organised a day's sensitisation workshop in Accra for a cross-section of people from the Ghana Police Service, the Judicial Service and other government agencies, as well as care-givers and social workers, to deliberate on the access to justice for PWIDs.

The National Co-ordinator of Inclusion Ghana, Mr Auberon Jeleel Odoom, said PWIDs faced great challenges in accessing public services like education, health and legal services.

He recounted the plight of a parent of a PWID in the Volta Region, whose child had been raped but had found no justice because the police found no basis in prosecuting the case of a raped PWID.

He said another parent's child had been kicked out of apprenticeship because of the condition.

Emphasising the enormity of the challenge, Mr Odoom said a misunderstanding of PWID, and misconceptions about the condition resulted in people associating the condition with mental diseases.

Thus, PWID were often taken to mental hospitals where they were often maltreated.

He said with the formation of the champions of change, it was expected that Ghanaians would be sensitive enough to the issues of PWID to bring about the needed change for an improvement in their lives.

By Caroline Boateng