Mr Philip Duah, the Executive Director, Abak Foundation has advised employers to stop stigmatising qualified persons with disability (PWDs) seeking jobs in their companies.
He said the act was disheartening and shattered their hopes in acquiring decent jobs.
He gave the advice at a dissemination and closeout session of the Economic Empowerment Programme (EEP) of Sightsavers, Abak Foundation, Challenges Worldwide, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations and inclusion Ghana in Accra.
The two-year programme saw 127 PWDs secure decent jobs either through direct employment or entrepreneurship, after receiving required skills.
The closeout session was to celebrate their achievement, the businesses of PWDs that improved and PWDs who got employment after receiving employability skills.
In a country where formal jobs were difficult to access, Mr Duah said a combination of a pathway of employability and entrepreneurship skill, would help to equip PWDs with the needed skills and knowledge to secure or create decent jobs, hence the relevance of the programme.
“Those who need employment need mentorship and support to catch the eye of the employer and that brought about a lot of training such as building the capacity of PWDs to write CVs and attend interviews,” he said.
Mr David Agyemang, the Country Lead, Sightsavers, explaining the Ghana Economic Empowerment Programme pathways, said the Employability pathway sought to build the skills of persons with disabilities on how to present themselves at interviews and how to write curriculum vitae among others while the Entrepreneurship pathway built their capacity to establish or enhance their businesses.
After the training, he said the employers also did self assessment to identify how prepared they were to employ persons with disability.
“If they should employ a person with disability today, would they be able to handle that person? Would they be able to provide what we call a minimum accommodation for them?, he said”.
Mr Agyemang said after all preparations, they brought all employers engaged together in a network called Ghana Business and Disability Network to make workplaces all-inclusive.
“All these processes that I’m telling you contributed in helping us to transition 127 persons with disabilities into jobs. You know that it’s very difficult to get jobs nowadays, even if you are not having the disabilities.
“If you don’t have a job, you know the challenges that come with it. But then picture, if you are a person with disability, your problem is even bigger, because you have to take care of your family, and at the same time, you have to deal with your disabilities.
“So these people have a lot of challenges they were going through, which I believe this employment will now make things easier for them,” he noted.
Mr Isaac Wabey, a PWD and beneficiary of the programme, sharing his experience said: “I enrolled onto the programme as a job seeker. I was unemployed but I gained soft skills, and knowledge on CV writing among others.
“It was through the training that I secured a formal job and ventured into Entrepreneurship as well.
“Through the EEP, I am now employed, have set up my own business and have set up an NGO to help others,” he added.
Mr Wabey said capacity building was key in giving PWDs competencies and skills to work and earn for a living.
He encouraged the programme’s implementors to promote networking at every gathering to enrich opportunities for all those marginalised.
By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
GNA
