Every activity of the GFD will touch the life of a person with disability positively – Mr Homadzi

 

Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Orgnisations (GFD) has tasked member organisations to ensure that every activity they undertake will impact the life of a person with disability positively 

He said: “we want to bring everybody on board and widen the scope of issues. Disability issues should not be just about the traditional disabilities.” 

Mr Homadzi was addressing Executive Directors of member organisations at a meeting. 

The meeting discussed the expectations and responsibilities of member organisations as well as the coordinating role of the GFD towards member organisations. 

Mr Homadzi said there was the need to strengthen member organisations to make the GFD stronger 

Mrs Rita Kyeremaa Kusi, Executive Director of the GFD said the GFD as a body cannot do it alone without the support of member organisations. 

She pledged the GFD’s continuous support for member organisations, saying, “we will continue to provide support.” 

OAfrica wants support to continue rehabilitative services

 OAfrica, a not for profit, child welfare organisation is calling on philanthropists to support them access therapy for people in their care.

The organisation currently has 10 adults with various disabilities in an assisted living facility who need various therapies and rehabilitation services to keep them going.

Ms Jacinta Attakorah, a social worker with the organisation told the Special Mothers Project that sourcing funding has been very difficult after the COVID -19 pandemic.

She explained that the people in their care were between the ages of 19 and 26 and lived with various kinds of disability including autism, cerebral palsy psychosis and other disabilities.

OAfrica currently employers foster parents who lives with the persons in their care and take them through various daily living skills as well as enrolling them in various vocations to make them productive citizens and enable them to earn an income by themselves.

Ms Attakorah said: “we need physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, special educationists and counsellors to support the work we do.”

OAfrica has established the Foster Family Care (FFC) programme where children abandoned by their families due to poverty or disability are provided with a safe, stable, and loving environment essential to their well-being as steps are taken to find more permanent care.

Ms Attakorah said the children are placed in foster care with a specially trained foster mother who provides for their daily physical needs and, most importantly, offers love and encouragement that is essential for children who have often experienced instability, neglect or even abuse when they arrived.

OAfrica is working hard to ensure that each foster family care placement will provide the essential love and support that these children need to thrive, she added.