ASSEMBLY ASSISTS THE DISABLED (PAGE 30)

Story: Kwame Asiedu Marfo & Juliet Aguair, Sekondi

THE Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has supported 34 persons, including the physically disabled, with cash, sewing machines, wheelchairs, palm kernel cracking machine, as well as corn milling machine to the tune of GH¢11,924.
The items and the cash are to support them to set up small businesses that will help them to be self-employed and to take care of themselves financially.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of STMA, Mr Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, pointed out that if a person had a disability, it did not mean that they would not be important in life.
He said the contribution of every individual to the development of the country could not be underestimated.
Therefore, he called on persons with disability to see themselves as people capable of contributing their quota to improving their lives.
He urged them to take good care of what was given to them.
“Let this make a difference in your life, so that the assembly will be able to support others,” he advised.
He also asked them to consult with the Department of Social Welfare any- time they had problems.
The Metro Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mrs Deborah Daisy Kwabia, said the family had the responsibility to take good care of people with disability.
She said the disabled must be encouraged to appreciate the fact that they could also do something meaningful in life, adding that the government was ready to support them.
She added that the department would, from time to time, visit their homes or workplaces to find out if there was any improvement in their lives.
She also advised those who had not registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme to do so, and also ensure that their children who were of school age were equally enrolled in school.
A beneficiary of the Sekondi branch of the Ghana Society of the Physicaly Disabled, Madam Martha Esi Ainooson, encouraged those not members of the association to join it.
“Joining the association has made me feel that I am part of society,” she said, adding: “I was always in my room feeling neglected, but when I came out, I have known that I can do most of the things that able-bodied people do.”
She, therefore, encouraged them to accept that that was the situation in which they found themselves.
This, she said, would help them develop themselves and contribute their quota to the community in which they found themselves.