The National Union of Organizations of the Disabled, or NOUD, is calling for an increment in the budgetary allotment for its parent body, the National Commission on Disabilities. NOUD is also advocating for the appointment and employment of persons with disabilities in relevant ministries, commissions, bureaus, and agencies.
Specifically, it wants President Boakai to appoint two deputies to the Executive Director of the National Commission on Disabilities and an advisor from the disabled community in the Office of the Presidency, just as there are advisors on matters.
We think these are not much to ask for, especially coming from a segment of the Liberian society that is so regretted when it comes to welfare and equal opportunity, purely on the basis of their unfortunate conditions.
But this shouldn’t be so, for people with disabilities are no lesser Liberians than those of us who have our physical bodies intact. They have brains, and most are educated and smarter than some of us, endowed with all normal physical abilities.
Making the call in a nine-count petition to the government, President NOUD Peter Flomo also asked for the reinstatement of all specialized schools that were removed from the Ministry of Education’s subsidy listing by the previous government to enhance the education of disabled students.
“We are also calling on the Ministry of Education to ensure that all qualified classroom teachers with disabilities be identified for possible employment in specialized schools,” he says. Mr. Flomo wants the Liberian government to issue official passports to NOUD executives whenever they travel to the United States and other parts of the world for conferences to ease their travel on behalf of the disabled community in Liberia.
We think that these concerns raised by our brothers and sisters from the disabled community should draw the government’s attention to have something done to address their plight. Firstly, they are human beings, and most importantly, Liberians, who deserve all other rights, just as any citizen of Liberia does.
The national government should empower our brothers and sisters from this segment of society to become productive citizens rather than relegating them to being beggars at street corners.
It is time that relevant government institutions have a place in their agenda for people with disabilities to incorporate them for public services instead of having them at the doors of ministries and agencies to beg for alms. They are not responsible for their current state and should not be ostracized from society.
