The Legal Aid Board and the National Commission for Persons with Disability are collaborating on rights issues pertaining to disabled persons including the blind, wheelchair users, deaf, amputees, war wounded and albinos.
The disabled persons qualify for legal aid without any precondition because they are vulnerable.
According to the National Outreach Officer for the Legal Aid Board, Mr. Ibrahim Kamara, the Board had two meetings with the Disability Commission in May, and agreed to launch a campaign in the coming weeks. “The campaign will draw attention to serious rights issues affecting disabled persons”, he said.
The Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, said the rights issues affecting disabled persons are many and daunting. She noted that a good number of disabled persons are compelled to live on the streets because they do not have a place call home. “So when you see them on the streets of PZ and Sani Abacha at night and sleeping rough, they are not criminals, they are not loitering, they are homeless,” she said. Carlton-Hanciles said that disabled persons do not have a sustainable source of livelihood. “Some do not know where the next meal will come from and this why they resort to begging,” she said.
The Executive Director disclosed that the two institutions will soon announce a date for the White Cane Campaign. “In April, I drew the attention of the Waterloo Community to discrimination blind people are subjected to in using public transport and therefore floated the idea of a White Cane Campaign”, she said.
She further disclosed that a Trust Fund, and Care Centres will be set up. “Centres will provide counselling services and food to disabled persons”, she said. “This is an ambitious initiative which will require the support and goodwill of all including the government and the international community. We will provide the leadership to make these initiatives work”.
Monday May 22, 2017.
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