The Federation of Persons With Disability (PWD) in the Bono Region has called on Government and the Ministry of Tertiary Affairs to as a matter of urgency introduce government grants for persons with disability in the various tertiary institutions.
According the Bono Regional Secretary of the PWD, Sirina Mohammed such a move will help ease the pressure on the Disability Common Fund at the District level.
Ms. Sirina Mohammed also appealed to government to include students with disability in the various scholarships programmes.
Ms. Mohammed said this in an interview with Radio Ghana in Sunyani.
The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations is an umbrella group, founded in 1987.
It consists of smaller organisations representing various persons with disabilities in Ghana.
The Organisation is seeking to make an input in the review of the Disability Act, ACT 715 of 2006.
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Morrison recently inaugurated a Technical Committee to undertake the review and prepare an accompanying Legislative Instrument (LI) for submission to Parliament.
In an interview with Radio Ghana, Sirina Mohammed who is the Bono Regional Secretary of the PWD said, the Reviewers must address the fact that the amount allocated to persons with disability at the district level is woefully inadequate.
There is therefore the need for government to make available grants to disabled students at the tertiary level to reduce the burden on the Disability Common Fund at the district level.
She said even though their Common fund has been increased from two to three percent, it is still woefully inadequate.
Ms. Sirina stressed that, the various assemblies should allocate some of their Internally Generated Funds (IGF) to the rehabilitation and general welfare of persons with disability.
She called on the Sunyani Municipal Assembly and the government to help disabled children in the country especially those at the Nyamah Special Needs in Sunyani to reduce streetism among persons with disability in the Municipality.
Sirina Mohammed said as a Federation they are doing their best to help persons with disability, but the government needs to do more for the Disabled.
Story filed by Daniel Donkor
