By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
(c).Naijaloaded.
Members of the media and other critical stakeholders have been urged to pay more attention to the issues concerning persons with disabilities , PWDs in kogi state.
This is with a view to changing the narratives of this segment of the population for the better in the state.
The Programme Manager,Advocacy for Women With Disabilities Initiatives , Mr. Kolawole Jaiyeoba, gave the advice in Lokoja, kogi state while fielding questions from journalists in Lokoja, the capital of the state on Wednesday.
Mr.Kolawole Jaiyeoba, addressing participant at the occasion.
It was on the sideline of a one day Media Collaboration and Awareness Campaign,on sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls with disabilities.
He said the NGO organized the exercise to discuss issues relating to women and girls disability and thought it wise to engage critical stakeholders such as media and health practitioners, for the sharing of experiences, ideas and proffer solution to challenges facing PWDs in the state.
According to him, the role of the media in changing the narrative of the persons with disability for better,especially women and girls in such physical and psychological condition cannot be over emphasized.
Jaiyeoba said: “The media has a major role to play in shaping the thought , mind and attitude of the public. That is why we take the aspect of stakeholders very serious.
“We know that the media has been playing the role as regards women and girls disability but we urge them to the play the role more, so that the state government can know what the persobs with disabilities are going through regarding their sexual and reproductive health rights.”
According to him, the state government also needs to what PWDs are going through as regards their health, the inclusion, atitude of the nurses, availability of some facilities such as ram in public institutions, sign interpreters among other concerns.
He commended the governor of kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for his effort in trying to carry everybody along in his administration but called on him to give more listening ears to the community of persons with disabilities to make the society more includive in the activities of his government.
“The government needs to know how many persons with disabilities are in the state.
“Governor Yahaya Bello has been the father of the state for almost eight years, he should be able to get facts about the population of perssons with disabilities under his watch to enable the state government include them it its budgetary preparation and implementation.
“We want the government to have a way of getting the data, not only at the centre but also in all the agencies down to local level.
“The data should be disagregated to have disability component so that at the level of decision-making process, the state government will know the category of persons with disabilities and how they can be carried along in governance.
According to him, such adequate data will also help government in taking critical decisions that would improve the society at large in addition for the government to know the level of strength and weakness in performance and amend, where necessary.
He also called on the state government to make the commission for persons with disabilities a functional establishment, through effective funding, among other desired efforts.
He encouraged persons with disabilities, especially women and girls among them, to know that they were not forgotten as exemplified by the establishment of the NGO.
Jaiyeoba called on PWDs to come out of their shelve and break the barrier,not just because of them but also the generations to come so that such generation would know that someone with such condition broke barrier to have education and made other life accomplishments to become an important member of the society.
Earlier while addressing the participants at the training, the programme manager condemned the disdain treatment persons with disabilities usually pass through in the society and attributed that to cultural and other practises.
Our correspondent reports that the occasion featured sharing of mind-blowing and thought-provoking experiences some participants who went through ordeals in the society and how they broke the barrier before realising their aims in life.
Some of the participants,drawn from some media organizations, health concerns thanked the NGO, its supporters;Hivos and WElead for the exercise.
