One hundred and fifty physically challenged persons in the Suhum Municipality are to hit the road, against the Suhum Municipal Assembly to demand arrears for their two percent share of the Assembly Common Fund for the past three years.
The Suhum Municipal Chairman of the physically challenged , Mr Ofori Manu, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at an emergency meeting of members of the Association, said for the past three years, members never had their share of the Assembly’s Common Fund.
He said, since they have no money to finance their businesses, most of the members who are shoe makers, shoe shine boys, tailors, petty traders and basket weavers, among others, have stopped their businesses.
Mr Manu alleged that any time the members visit the assembly to demand their share of the common fund, they are driven away and at times threatened with police arrests.
He said, for the past 10 years, no member of the Association had gone onto the streets to beg for alms, and that if the members are denied their share of the common fund, they will be forced to go onto the streets for alms, and this the Association wants to prevent.
He, therefore, appealed to benevolent societies, religious organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and Philanthropists, to give financial support to members.
Reacting to the concerns expressed by the physically challenged, the Municipal Chief Executive for Suhum, Mr Samuel Fleistcher Kwabi, explained that often when the Assembly receives its share of the common fund, a Committee on the Disable Fund meets, and the Assembly disburses the Fund, based on their recommendations.
He said some of the recipients had been receiving between GhC 500 and GhC 1,000.
The Assembly, he said, has however realized that, over the years, it is the same people from the Municipal Disabled Association who have been benefiting, yet there are other disabled persons in the Municipality who have been registered with the Department of Social Welfare who have not been benefiting.
Mr Kwabi said, the Assembly in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare, had decided to cast the net wide so that many more disabled persons in the Municipality could also benefit from the Fund .
He pointed out that the directives on the disbursement of the disabled fund, did not indicate that it was meant for only organized disabled persons in an Association.
