Lady With Disability Launches Advocacy Group For Children
A 25-year-old survivor of spinal cord and brain disorder, Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus, Ms Dorcas Margaret Majitey, has launched a foundation to provide assistance to persons with the condition.
The foundation, Dorcas Margaret Foundation (DMF), would be seeking support for the health and educational needs of persons with disabilities, especially those with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.
It would also embark on a series of public education campaigns to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with disability.
Spina Bifida is the inability of the spinal cord to form properly in the womb, which affects mobility and also leads to infections of the kidney and bladder; and Hydrocephalus is also the failure of the brain to form properly, leading to swelling of the head, if treatment doesn’t start early. The two almost always come together.
People with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus hardly cross the age of 10, but on Saturday, October 16, Dorcas Margaret Majitey, a graduate of the Cape Coast Technical university and student of the African University College of Communication, celebrated her 25th birthday; the day on which she launched the foundation.
Ms Dorcas attributes her survival to the grace of God and, therefore, has plans to also add preaching of the Gospel of Christ to persons with the condition, to the activities of the organisation.
She is appealing to philanthropists and all well-meaning citizens to come support her foundation to help alleviate the sufferings of persons with disabilities.
Dorca’s mother, Rev. Dr Joyce Majitey, admonished parents of children with disabilities not to despair nor underestimate the capabilities of their children.
According to her, children with disabilities have great potentials like every other child, which when harnessed, could contribute to the development of society.
She, therefore, urged parents to give their special needs children the best of love, care and education.
The Executive Director of Rickmes Foundation, a Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus advocacy organisation, Mr Patrick Essuman, bemoaned the lack of specialised doctors to handle persons with the condition.
He asserted that most doctors in the country lack the requisite knowledge and skills to treat persons with the condition.
Mr Essuman called on the Government to sponsor people to go study about the condition to improve health care delivery to victims.
Source: Modern Ghana