The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Larteh-Akuapem-based As I Grow organisation, Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac, has passionately entreated Ghanaians not to see People Living With Disabilities (PWDs) as evil and carriers of bad omens.
According to him, these individuals were just victims of life circumstances and must be treated with dignity and respect, rather than seeing them as evil and even carriers of bad omens.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac bemoaned how individuals with various physical impairments were always relegated, discriminated against and ignored in the communities by some families, which even consider them to be evil and bad omens.
He made the observation when his outfit donated wheelchairs to PWD in the Akuapem North Municipality and Okere District as part of health support for the less privileged communities in its operational areas.
Speaking to the media shortly after the donation the CEO of the Larteh-Akuapem-based organisation, which aims at providing maximum support in terms of education, women empowerment, youth empowerment, teenage pregnancy counseling and advocacy programs, health, water and sanitation programs all geared to salvage the less privileged in these agrarian communities in the country, called on Ghanaians not to neglect PWDs.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac said some parents, who had children with various disabilities sometimes develop hatred for them and even starve them in order to get rid of them.
He went on to explain that his motive for distributing the wheelchairs to these people was to help them and also lessen the burden on their parents and the individuals themselves.
He lamented how some parents who had such children could not even afford the medical bills, feeding, dressings and other personal items to aid them, hence, his providing the wheelchairs chairs to aid them.
The CEO of As I Grow said the wheelchairs would go a long way to support the movement of these impaired people, since most of them did not have the means to move about.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac took the opportunity to tell Ghanaians, institutions and organisations to avoid discrimination against such individuals, and try to integrate them in the affairs of the community and government to make them feel part of the nation and community.
One of the recipients of the wheelchairs, Jeffrey Minta, a class five teacher at Larteh Salvation Army Basic School, expressed his dissatisfaction with how schools, hospitals and public places did not consider building structures which were user-friendly to PWDs.
He further charged teachers to avoid ridiculing and looking down on children with various disabilities, since it dampened their spirits and emotions, as well as parents who neglect their wards with any physical impairment.
The beneficiaries and their parents pleaded with Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac to get more people to support them, in terms of financial assistance, feeding and medical expenses.
