The Ghana National Household Registry is a unit under the
Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection with a mandate to establish
a single household register from which social protection programmes will select
their beneficiaries.
A programme that some will say is long overdue given the
importance of data and its effects on policy making and planning.
No plan can be considered effective in the absence of an
accurate data, the reason the distribution of cooked food and food supplies
probably became a fiasco at the time of the partial lock down due to the Corona
Virus Disease 2019 Pandemic.
I recollect writing an article on that fact that many
families raising children with special needs and in need of the relief items
have been left behind, because most of them cannot go out and queue, may not
know who their District Assembly representative is and so they were practically
left out.
Children with cerebral palsy, fall into the categories of
persons considered to be vulnerable given that they are disabled, however,
usually when persons with disabilities are mentioned, it seems to me that it is
not mentioned with children with cerebral palsy in mind.
Well…how are they to go and queue for support, when first of
all, they are children and they are limited by movement and most often speech,
who is to speak for them?
At the height of Ghana’s partial lock down and food
distribution programme was the thought of the need for data on the various
categories of disabilities and more especially children with disability.
I don’t think Ghana has specifically made a decision of
getting data on for instance children with cerebral palsy and their families.
It was therefore welcomed news when I heard that the Ghana
National Household Registry had started an emergency data collection for the
poor and vulnerable in Accra.
However, a few questions continue to linger on my mind, is
my daughter with cerebral going to be enumerated? When I shared this welcomed
news of data collection on the Special Mothers Platform, a few questions were
asked which I will repeat in this article
The Special Mothers Project is an advocacy and awareness
creation programme on cerebral palsy issues and issues affecting families
raising children with special needs.
The project operates an online platform via social media
that serves as a support for families raising children with special needs in
addition to providing professional counselling services
Mizzen (Not the real name) is a mother of four young girls,
one of her four girls lives with cerebral palsy, Mizzen lives with her husband
in a plush house around Amasaman, because of her children, especially the one
with cerebral palsy, she is not working, along the line, her husband also loses
his job, now they struggle to get three square meals sometimes, how will she be
classified? Vulnerable?
Abena Manu (Not the real name), a mother of a child with
cerebral palsy, works as an Executive Secretary in a good organization, her
husband also works in a good organization, however, to sustain their daughter
with cerebral palsy in an expensive private school that is charging fees in
thousands of dollars a term, they have to put both incomes together to pay
school fees with very little left to cater for other essential life needs.
Abena has another daughter apart from her daughter with
cerebral palsy, in her own words she says “We have no savings at all, all our
income is used to pay for the school fees of one child who lives with cerebral
palsy, will Abena be considered vulnerable?
The examples can go on and on, so beyond covid 19, what will
the Ghana National Household Registry data look for.
For many families raising children with cerebral palsy, it
is not just about giving out cooked food or relief items, it goes beyond that.
It is about having an Inclusive society, it is about
implementing the already existing policies such as the Inclusive Education
policy, it is about having affordable services handy such that it does not have
to cost an arm and a leg to access therapy services, it is about being able to have some respite
as a mother and “live” again.
The Ghana National Household Registry among its objectives
will support inter-institutional cooperation to improve the impact of social
spending and elimination of duplication.
The Registry also hopes to allow the development of accurate
socioeconomic analyses on poverty to support development of plans and the
design and development of specific programmes targeted to vulnerable and or low
income sectors.
