C/R registers 4,237 physically challenged persons

Mankessim (C/R), Dec. 12, GNA - The Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled (GSPD) registered 4,237 physically challenged persons in the Central Region last year. Out of the number 798 were youths between the ages of 15 and 35. Mr Jehoshaphat Isaac Mensah, Central Regional Chairman of the youth-wing of the GSPD announced this at the celebration of the United Nations Day of the Disabled at Mankessim at the weekend.

Mr Mensah said out of the 4,237 only 26 per cent of the disabled could read and write and 48 per cent were engaged in gainful income generating activities such as leather works, tailoring, dressmaking and hairdressing. He appealed to employers not to make disability, which could become anybody's lot at anytime to be a barrier to getting employed, stressing that for 52 per cent of the disabled to be denied employment was a

serious issue, which needed urgent attention. Mr Mensah, however, blamed parents who denied their children with disabilities education for the predicament in which they found themselves now. He appealed to Parliament and the government to expedite action on the passage of the Disability Bill.

Mr Ransford Mensah, an executive member of the GSPD expressed regret that society saw the disabled as good for only handicrafts and called for a change of this perception.

Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur, Mfantseman District Chief Executive appealed to the physically challenged not to be discouraged about their misfortune making them to resign to their fate. He urged them to make god use of the talents God had given to them to earn decent living. The DCE appealed to those who depended on alms for their living to get out of the streets and to take advantage of the interventions the government and donor partners were offering to the poor to improve their standards of living.

Nana Ama Amissah II of Mankessim advised women with disabilities against being lured into sex since because of their condition men often denied responsibility when they became pregnant. Nana Amissah said giving birth to "fatherless children" would compound their problems. Mr Charles K Fosu, National President of the youth-wing inaugurated the Central Regional branch of the Society.