By Kevin Lamdo
Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) volunteers, Local Council authorities and persons living with disability on Wednesday 5 December converged at the British Council Hall to document and share success stories on providing services to disabled people in Kono, Bo and Western Rural Districts.
Under the auspices of HANDICAP International, it followed a one-day CBR workshop which took place at the British Council for persons living with disability.
Following the enactment of the Disability Act in Sierra Leone, the rights of persons living with disability have been brought to the fore. As the country celebrated the International Day for Disable on the 3th of December, with the theme; “removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all”.
CBR volunteers who were tasked to identify and empower disabled persons have been recording success stories in their various locations. In this workshop, many of those success stories were documented. Also, in the workshop, solutions were proposed to ensure the sustainability of the CBR approach. To that end the Local councils were encouraged to provide the funds and the conducive atmosphere for that approach to thrive and mainstream disability issues in the local council’s agenda. #
The workshop drafted a CBR action plan for 2013, the year in which HANDICAP International will the wrapping up its funding with the CBR approach. The Programmes Officer of HANDICAP International responsible for Health and Rehabilitation, Arthur Saidu expressed his organization’s satisfaction with the CBR approach and urged the local councils and volunteers to do more in empowering persons living with disability.
A CBR volunteer from Hastings in the Western Rural District, Mariama Jalloh, herself living with disability, spoke about the story of one Fatu of Hastings community which she cited as a success story.
Sylvanus Mondeh from Kono also highlighted the “successful interventions” they had been undertaking in the district.
While Hassan Sallu of Girehun in Bo District lavished praise on the Bo District Council for their “positive role” in increasing access and inclusion for disabled persons in the district.
The workshop ended with the participants making a commitment to maintain the successes they had achieved so far.
Meanwhile on Monday 3 December, Sierra Leone commemorated the International Day for the Disabled. Various disabled organizations held different programmes to mark the day.
At Grafton, hundreds of persons living with disability and their kids converged at the Maria Polio Victim Primary School and simplified the disability act of 2012.
The Acting Chairman of the Polio Group in Grafton and Chairman of the International Day for the Disable celebration in Grafton, Simeon Kamara told Politico that Grafton is “the nucleus” of disabled groups. This is due to the fact that people living with polio, leprosy, the war-wounded, amputees and visually impaired all live together in this community.
Kamara said that they were disappointed by the way the Western Rural Area District Council “failed” to provide them with financial support to observe the day.
The Polio Acting Chairman said that they were thankful to HANDICAP International for providing financial and moral support for the commemoration of the day. Pupils of Maria Polio Victim performed a skit on the inclusion of children with disability into the educational sector in Sierra Leone.
Elderly people living with disability also performed a skit depicting the empowerment of community people on disability issues.
At Hastings, disabled persons converged at the Polio Women and Girls Vocational Training Centre and interracted with other members of the community to promote inclusiveness and accessibility for the disabled.
Theresa Kobba, the Programmes Officer for Handicap International responsible for Community Based Rehabilitation told Politico that her organization had provided funds to the various groups in the Western Rural, Bo and Kono Districts for the commemoration of the day.
(c) Politico 06/12/12
