Africa-Press – Botswana. The public has been urged to engage people with disabilities (PWDs) in various aspects of life.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry for State President, Ms Goitsemang Morekisi made the call on Friday in Gaborone, during the official opening of the Disability Resource Centre, mentioning that government was aiming at promoting inclusion of PWDs in communities.
She, therefore, challenged all to fully accommodate PWDs and improve their human rights status as well as ensure that the whole nation abide by the eight principles of the convention Botswana was currently developing.
She said for true inclusion to happen, the entire Botswana community must collectively contribute.
“Batswana should go back to their roots of volunteering, which has been the cornerstone of disability support in Botswana, people could volunteer their skills, time and resources to support the sector of PWDs,” she said.
Ms Morekisi thanked the Embassy of Canada, which contributed significantly to the Resource Centre project, as well as the Sir Seretse Khama Memorial Fund for PWDs Board of Trustees who took part in the sponsorship.
She said the Resource Centre was conceptualised to close service gaps in education on rights for persons with disabilities in order to promote more inclusive development and nurturing and supporting parents-led organisations and other disability service organisations to better serve individuals with disabilities.
She said the Resource Centre came at the right time when Botswana had just acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of PWDs and had just approved the National Disability Policy.
She said accession to the convention came with some commitments meant to improve the quality of life for PWDs that Botswana needed to fulfill.
She, however, reiterated that such did not refer to government alone, but to other stakeholders to take part, adding that as much as government needed to develop a responsive policy framework, the business community needed to open up employment opportunities for PWDs and support value-add projects.
Ms Morekisi acknowledged some advancement made in the country in supporting PWDs among them the establishment of the National Disability Coordinating Office in the Ministry for State President to coordinate all government efforts towards mainstreaming disability in the national development agenda.
She also cited the provision of the disability cash transfer to support qualifying individuals with disabilities.
Further, she said government was applying affirmative action across different government departments towards PWDs such as land policy guiding land allocation, reduced entry marks for tertiary education for learners with special needs and local procurement scheme supported by the newly approved Economic Inclusion Act.
She hailed Botswana Council for the Disabled (BCD) for embracing disability in their initiatives, as well as providing services to PWD since the late 1960s, adding that they continued to do so even with limited resources.
She said she believed that through the Disability Resource Centre, BCD would have a coordinated, structured and evidence-based programme that would monitor human rights situation of persons with disabilities across the country, document cases and liaise with the Disability Coordinating Office and other stakeholders to find long term solutions to challenges experienced by PWDs.
She hailed the gains made by BCD, ‘but at the same time we appreciate that there are still challenges that need to be addressed in the sector’.
For her part, on the funding initiative, the programmes manager in the Embassy of Canada to Zimbabwe, Ms Jessica Dawson said Canada sought to reduce barriers and increase opportunities for PWDs.
Ms Dawson further said they worked to ensure their full participation in the society adding that Canada had a strong legislative framework that guaranteed the equal rights of PWDs.
She, therefore, said the Disability Resource Centre would make a difference to PWDs and meaningfully contribute to public education on rights for PWDs, advocate for implementation of international and domestic legislation, policies and laws promoting rights of PWDs as well as promote access to justice by persons with disabilities through their corporate social responsibility initiatives.
For his part, the BCD executive director, Mr Moffat Louis said the Disability Resource Centre was conceptualised to address gaps in service delivery to persons with disabilities.
He said the most pressing challenges had to do with insufficient information on rights for persons with disabilities, which usually led to human rights violations such as discrimination based on disability, denied access to mainstream services such as education, health and access to public spaces in buildings and transport.
“The resource centre will hence provide two critical services meant to address this challenge,” he said, adding that it would provide human rights education to persons with disability, highlight human rights violations, and educate the public on available remedies to such violations.
He further said it would work to promote access to justice, adding that the human rights and para-legal unit would have a structured system of case management, working with partner entities such as UB legal clinic, Legal Aid and other organisations, which could assist with litigation to pursue cases of human rights violations.
Mr Louis said the centre would also provide incubation services/grassroots organisation development programme, adding that through the programme, BCD would incubate grassroots organisations with big ideas on value-add projects meant to promote full inclusion of PWDs.
He said it could be projects across sectors such as business for persons with disabilities, sports, community services and employment including any value-add projects deemed to have necessary flair to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.
These will be piloted and supported through the Disability Resource Centre.
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