As part of efforts to empower vulnerable people in the society to become economically self-reliant, the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Assembly has presented electronic appliances and other items worth GH¢43,500 to 24 persons with disability (PWD) within the area to start a trade.
The items presented included 13 deep freezers, sets of cooking utensils, a laptop, boxes of washing detergent, oven, cylinder and accessories, a Honda tricycle and sets of scissors and screw drivers, washing machines, knitting machines, as well a an ice chests among other items.
An amount of GH¢5,050 and GH¢ 1,700 was also presented to two PWDs for settlement of medical bills and school fees as part of the donation.
The presentation took place at the premises of the assembly in Accra last Tuesday.
PWD allocation
The items, which were funded from the three per cent district assembly common fund earmarked for the PWDs, were bought based on the request of the beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries, according to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the area, Mr Patrick Kwesi Brako Kumor, were selected through the help of assembly members in various electoral areas and the social welfare unit based on which they were screened and interviewed on what their individual needs were.
Mr Kumor stated that in time past, the PWDs were supported with cash as their share of the common fund allocation but that the New Patriotic Party, after assumption of power, decided to change the status quo by, first, increasing the fund from two to three per cent and then using it to support them establish a buiness based on their individual business idea and skills set.
“The whole idea of this initiative is to get the PWDs off the streets. It is better they have something doing, a vocation to feed themselves.This is also to uplift them economically to fit into society because disability as they say is not inability”, he said.
Commitment to PWDs
The Member of Parliament for the Weija-Gbawe Constituency and Deputy Minister of Health, Ms Tina Mensah said the government was committed to seeing to the well-being of PWDs in the country.
“Your disabilities do not bar you from working to make money for yourselves and that is why the government decided to support you to set up your own small businesses,” she added.
The Municipal Cordinating Director for the assembly, Ms Mercy Quansah, for her part, advised the PWDs to make good use of the items procured for them.
“Go and use this to do something beneficial for yourselves and your families”, she encouraged them.
The beneficiaries expressed their gratitude to the MCE and the government for the gesture.
Source: Graphic Online
