It is not an easy life to live in #Uganda. A beautiful country in which now many live in fear. Imagine living in that same country with disabilities. No words people. ------------------------------------ By Gladys Kalibbala Reports indicate that about 20% of the world’s population are people living with different forms of disability. Like everyone else, these people have the same right to food, healthcare, shelter, education as well as being able to learn skills to earn themselves an income. For the people with disabilities (PWDs), learning various kinds of skills can help them be included more easily in their respective communities than would perhaps have otherwise been without such acquired abilities. In this day and age, many Ugandan parents who have disabled children still hide them behind closed doors – away from the public eye – because they consider them to be curses. And by locking them away, they inevitably refuse to send them to school. This denial of an education leaves such children vulnerable to the potentially brutal realities of life, hence plunging them into a miserable life where they miss out on employment, general services like health care et cetera. Unlike these children at Entebbe Children’s Welfare Primary School, not all disabled kids get a chance at education. (Photo credit: Gladys Kalibbala) Meanwhile as such harrowing scenarios continue to exist amidst us, the International Day of People with Disability (PWDs) is marked every year to highlight the existence of the disabled people across the globe. The special day – commemorated on December 3 – was endorsed by the United Nations and aims to promote an understanding of people with disability and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being. This year’s theme focused on the role of technology as a way of breaking down barriers for the disable and increasing their access to various forms of modern technology. In Entebbe Municipality the day was celebrated at Entebbe Children’s Welfare Primary School where the chief guest Yury Cherep from United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Cherep is the deputy chief of the Entebbe Support Base. Modesta Tezikyabbiri, the councilor for PWDs in Entebbe Municipality at the event. (Photo credit: Gladys Kalibbala) While meeting PWDs who had gathered at the school, he appealed to parents to stop hiding children with disabilities. He said: “Such children need a lot of attention and care and its one of the reasons we have carried food for them.” Cherep was accompanied by other UN volunteers and the group carried along donations including food stuffs, blankets, shoes, clothes and many other items. The chief further promised to donate sixty mattresses to the disabled. With Christmas only days away, the event made for perfect timing for children at the Entebbe school who received gifts from Santa Claus after entertaining guests. The group of UN volounteers donated items to the school. (Photo credit: Gladys Kalibbala) But while there was merry-making on this day, serious issues concerning the PWDs were also brought to the fore. Many of those present agreed with reports from the Ugandan ministry of education indicating that through the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme which started 17 years ago, Uganda has made tremendous progress towards the MDG target. But despite this stride, it was revealed that only a few disabled children have benefitted from this free education. Modesta Tezikyabbiri, the councilor for PWDs in Entebbe Municipality, said: “Many PWDs have missed out on benefits of the UPE programme because many teachers lack the necessary training for special needs children. Very few of them understand sign language while they don’t also have Braille for the blind.” She added that on top of government-aided schools for children with special needs being very few, they also lack facilities for PWDs yet only a handful of parents can afford to enroll their children into private special needs schools. “Private schools for PWDs have all the necessary equipment [facilities] in place but they prove to be very expensive for the common people,” underlined Modesta. She urged government to construct recreation centres strictly for the disabled people. Such facilities, she said, should be government-owned with computers to enable access to information and with Braille systems to aid the blind and visually impaired people. According to Modesta, if this action is made reality, it will help many PWDs understand modern technology better in a rapidly advancing technological era. She sees this as an appropriate form of compensation for the (UPE) programme many disabled people have missed. Although acknowledging that most PWDs living in rural areas face a lot more difficulty than their urban counterparts, she the councilor emphasized: “As the world is turned into a global village, let government make sure that we don’t remain backwards in technology because of our disabilities.” newvision.co.ug/news/662791-the-disabled-should-benefit-from-modern-technology.html
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 04:44:37 +0000
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