Parents, guardians urged not to hide children with disabilities

Parents have been urged not to hide children living with various forms of disabilities.

Speaking Wednesday at the Garissa School of the mentally handicapped during the commemoration of World Autism Awareness Day, NCPWD chief executive officer Harun Hassan said that hiding such a group of children denies them the opportunity to get better.

He said that the move not only occasions low self-esteem and dependency for the rest of their lives but also denies them their basic rights like education.

He used the opportunity to announce that the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) plans to work in collaboration with all county Level 4 and 5 hospitals to offer free medical services to persons with disabilities (PWD).

The program will also include free therapy sessions and the provision of essential drugs prescribed specifically for the PWDs.

He said that People with disabilities have been marginalized for so long and that they are working on programmes to help them going into the future.

The council further offered free medical camp, disability assessments education and occupational therapy sessions to the PWDs who attended the event.

“PWDs are slowly standing up for their rights and raising to occupy their spaces because they have gone to school and learnt and can deliver whenever called up,” Hassan said.

“I want to urge our leaders to be our ambassadors and speak for us in tables where we are not represented and help in protecting our rights,” he added.

Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed said that the parliament will be coming up with a bill to ensure that all caregivers for persons with disabilities are paid a stipend by the government.

Dekow said that he would set up a special clinic at the Garissa school for the mentally handicapped to enable the students to easily access medical services.

He called on the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) to deploy more teachers to the facility in anticipation of higher enrollment next term.

“We want all those who take care of the people with severe disabilities to be paid by the government. I want to call on parents who have special needs children to enrol them here as we work with all the partners to ensure that we provide enough resources for them,” Dekow said.

Garissa woman representative Udgoon Siyad emphasized the need for the community to treat and love people living with disabilities like any other member of the family without discrimination.

She said that gone are days when PWDs used to be treated like outcasts in the community.

She said that, through her office, she has been able to not only provide wheelchairs to those in need but also empower them financially by giving them start-up capital.