By Musa Baba Adamu
A group which champions the cause of Persons With Disability (PWDs), Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) has identified a number of ways through which life for PWDs could be made more meaningful and inclusive in the county.
Executive Director, IFA, Grace Jerry, disclosed this at a program in Abuja titled: “Building Young persons with disabilities to advocate on Gender based violence against women and girls with disabilities.”
The group said from its findings it found that there were gender based violence against women and girls with disabilities.
It said these groups of people do not get enough attention of the security and other government agencies whenever they approached them for redress and accommodation.
To overcome these, therefore, the group has suggested more Persons with disabilities, their family members and care givers should be enlightened on what Disability Based Violence is.
It said: “They should be enlightened to know what and what is not acceptable, what amounts to a violation, what to do when they are being violated and how to go about it.”
It called for the building of the law enforcement agents capacity to deal with issues that have to do with persons “with disability with a view to eradicating attitudinal, physical or systemic barriers that persons with disabilities face when trying to access their services.”
It further recommended that “Media outfits should take it upon themselves as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility to report issues of persons with Disabilities so as to enlighten the public and make them more aware and concerned with issues of persons with disabilities such that they no longer stigmatize a survivor of any form of violence or their family, and are able to stand up and speak up for them from now on.”
To support this, it called on “other Corporate organizations should sponsor media campaigns and projects that protect the rights of persons with disabilities.
Government should strengthen social protection systems and mainstream such programs to cater for the needs of persons with disabilities.”
To curb the widespread among the PWDs, the group tasked “Government should also implement the 5% employment quota provided for in the Disability Act.
“Putting these and other poverty alleviation measures in place will reduce the vulnerability of persons with disabilities to Disability Based Violence and give them the means to seek for justice when the need arises.”
It said education should be made free for persons with disabilities of school age.
“Their capacity should be built around defense mechanisms and how to seek redress. This will drastically reduce the silence culture among survivors because apart from the lack of resources or knowing the appropriate quarters to channel their complaints, a lot of persons with disabilities are afraid of not being able to express themselves or properly articulate their issues and would rather keep silent than embarrass themselves.”
