PWDs at Suhum appeal for ramps at public places

Persons with Disability (PWDs) at Suhum have made a passionate appeal to the Assembly to provide ramps at public places to facilitate their movement, especially those using wheelchairs.

According to the PWDs, most public places in the Municipality lacked ramps so it was difficult to get access to transact any business in the interest of their well-being.

Making the appeal at a forum to mark this year’s World Disability Day celebration at Suhum, they mentioned in particular, the Suhum Community Centre where they had most of their public functions yet had no ramps to enable their members in wheelchair to have access.

Mr Asiedu Budu, the Suhum Municipal Coordinator of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled (GSPD), said initially the Community Centre had a ramp but later that side was converted into an administrative office for the Assembly.

It was not fair that their interest had been neglected, he added.

Mr Budu said there was the need for PWDs to be provided with the basic facilities such as ramps at all public facilities to ensure that they moved about without depending on others, adding that “always calling on passersby to help you enter a facility because there is no access is a stigma for us”.

The Forum was held at the Community Centre and the PWDs who were using wheelchairs had to be carried by some of the members to enter the venue for the programme.

The celebration of the World Disability Day is a day set aside to focus on PWDs and highlights their concerns for governments and society to pay attention to their needs and this year’s was on the theme, “Empowering Persons with Disability and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality”.

Madam Lucy Anim, the administrator of the PWD Common Fund at the Assembly, said the Disability Fund was to support them have a decent livelihood and appeal to them to use the funds given them to embark on profitable ventures.

She said the three percent Common Fund was for all PWDs and therefore called on the public to encourage such persons begging on the street and living in bad conditions to send their particulars to the Department of Social welfare to be assisted.