Persons with disabilities in the West African sub region lack accessible facilities.

 

Mr Yatma Fall, President of the West Africa Federation of Persons with Disabilities, has called on governments within the West African sub region to prioritise accessibility issues that persons with disabilities face.

He said disability becomes a challenge when there is no accessibility and “we cannot develop our region without including the needs of persons with disabilities.”

Mr Fall said there are about 60 million persons with disabilities living in West Africa and governments cannot afford to leave them behind in the develop agenda.

He was speaking at the opening of a training programme for member of the West Africa Federation of Persons with Disabilities (WAFOD) on accessibility issues.

The WAFOD is made up of 16 federations of persons with disabilities from 16 countries including Ghana, Cote’D’ Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, South Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea Conakry, Niger among others.

Mr Fall said governments should be intentional about making policies, programmes and systems that facilitated the inclusion of person with disability especially in the area of accessibility.

“We cannot afford to leave behind 60 million persons with disabilities in West Africa,” he reiterated.

Ms Esther Ekua Gyamfi, Executive Secretary of the National Council on Persons with Disabilities who represented the Government said Ghana had taken steps to ensure the accessibility of persons with disabilities.

She said there are various programmes and policies being implemented to ensure that persons with disabilities in Ghana are not limited by accessibility and pledged government’s continuous support towards facilitating accessibility.

CLCD explores Peer Health Navigators programme with caregivers.

 

The Centre for Learning and Childhood Disabilities (CLCD) is exploring a project dubbed: Our Peer -Empowerment and Navigational Support (OP-ENS)” where selected parents of children with disabilities will be trained to serve as peer navigators.

Under the project, three Peer Health Navigators (PHN), all parents of children with disabilities have been trained to empower other parents of children with disabilities by providing them individualized support and structured problem-solving skills to overcome barriers to healthcare.

Ms Esinam Adade, a Researcher at CLCD who facilitated the PHN training, said most persons with disabilities have poorer access to health care and poorer health and a Peer Health Navigator could help remove some of these barriers.

She said the PHN programme have been used successfully in cancer and chronic illness treatment to reduce health disparities.

Ms Adade said the CLCD PHN programme is tailored to meet the primary needs of caregivers of children with disabilities.

She urged the trainees to integrate their unique experiences and background with the course content.

The trainees were taken through the various Developmental Disabilities, their symptoms,  the risk factors, some basic management techniques and the available resources that could help parents of children with disabilities.