Raising awareness of the 10%

On the 4^th December the Bawku West branch of the Ghana National Federation for the Disabled (NFD) held its road march and rally to mark the Day for Persons with Disabilities, an occasion promoted world wide as part of the UN charter to ensure equal rights for persons with disabilities, to raise awareness and to challenge stigma.

The event in Zebilla gave me my first opportunity to meet, en masse, with some of the local adults and children who have disabilities, as generally, other than the high profile individuals participating in the NFD, they are “locked in” or inhibited by fundamental barriers such as poverty, lack of accessibility, training and education,  hostile attitudes and superstition. (Globally it is estimated that 10% of any population will have a disability, with figures increasing in areas of greater poverty or conflict.)

Marching in Zebilla- along the secondary road towards the meeting place.

About 100 persons with disability, some with an adult or child carer, gathered on the road side in the morning sunshine with an air of enjoyable anticipation. Assembling ready to march, the wheelchair and pedal chair users came first, spearheading the route along Zebilla’s crowded main street, doubly busy with individual traders and street stalls as it was market day. Following behind was a larger contingent of mainly older people who were blind or visually impaired and struggling to use their walking canes, or any sort of stick, effectively, and relying instead on a sighted partner. In and among these were some children and adults with visible physical disabilities, and others, with hearing impairments, signing to each other.

I talked with the school students with disabilities, learning they were supported in practical ways and encouraged to go to school either by family members and/or as a sponsored child through a charity. Educational attainments varied: learning basic literacy and numeracy; preparing to take academic exams with ambitions for a professional career ; undergoing a vocational training, such as learning basic computer and mobile phone repairs. Each had an easy confidence and air of optimism.

Student sponsored by charity World Vision- attends Agatuse  Primary School

Conversations with others would have to wait for another occasion, with access to a translator, as many had little or no experience of the English language, having missed schooling.

The march ended at a church hall, where guest speakers, including one of the local village chiefs, an eye care health specialist, gave messages of support and practical advice- in Kusaal, the local language- including encouraging entrepreneurial use of  the small social welfare handouts available, condemning begging as demeaning, and urging pregnant mothers to use maternity services to minimize health risks, but also to eliminate the old practice in rural villages of killing any disabled newly born baby.

As a guest, and volunteer with VSO, I was allocated time to speak- through a translator- and stressed the value of education in its broadest sense as the key to independence, dignity, self respect and developing personal skills needed to succeed.