The Sunyani West Municipal Assembly has presented working tools and equipment worth GH¢76,200.00 to 60 Persons Living With Disabilities (PWDs) in the Municipality to help empower them earn a decent living.
The items include deep freezers, wheelbarrows, shovels, pick axes, head pans, tiler machines, fufu pounding machines, stand dryers, and spraying machine among others.
Some of the beneficiaries also received cash to invest in their petty trading activities, pay medical bills and school fees.
The presentation was funded from three percent of the Assembly’s share of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) allocated to the PWDs to support them to start their businesses.
Speaking during the event, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Evans Kusi Boadum, noted that the presentation indicated that the government and the Assembly had not rejected these persons, and urged them not to let their conditions discourage them from achieving their dreams.
He assured them of government support to improve upon their living conditions, explaining that the Assembly was putting in place measures to ensure all registered PWDs in the Municipality received support.
He cautioned the public against victimising people with disabilities, since disabilities were not infectious diseases.
According to him, disability was part of humans and almost everyone could temporarily or permanently experience some form of disability at some point in life.
The Municipal Social Welfare and Community Development Officer, Madam Matilda Asante, urged the beneficiaries to take proper care of the items, and use them for their intended purposes to better their livelihoods.
She said her outfit would embark on monitoring exercises to check their activities, and urged all PWDs in the Municipality to register with their association to also get the needed assistance.
Mr. Isaac Owusu Ansah, Chairman of the Persons with Disabilities Association in the Municipality, admonished PWDs in the area not to isolate themselves due to their the conditions, but be involved in activities in the society.
He commended the government for its continued support to PWDs, and urged the beneficiaries to be useful to society and desist from begging on the streets.
