The Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) has said its members were excluded from palliative distribution during the COVID-19 lockdown in Kano State, Northwest Nigeria.
The Vice-Chairman of the association in Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ahmad Tudun Wada, stated this in an Interview with newsmen at the commencement of a three-day training organised for Media and Civil Society organisation by Action Against Hunger, a non- governmental organisation.
He said when Kano State government commenced the palliatives distribution on the basis of “four people per ballot box”, the association was surprised over the method used for the distribution.
”Our expectation was whenever government decided to distribute palliatives or any aid, people with disabilities would be at the forefront but we were excluded,” Tudun Wada said.
He said the association had over one million members and wondered why they were excluded in the sharing of palliatives.
He said but for the intervention of a traditional title holder, Alhaji Mu’awiya Abbas Sanusi, Dan-Makwayon Bichi and District Head of Tsanyawa, members of the group would not have received anything.
Tudun Wada said, “our people suffered during the disbursement of palliatives.”
The Kano State government had distributed food items, including rice, millet and oil to citizens as COVID-19 palliatives on the basis of four persons per family.
In Nigeria most people with disability live on the street, sometimes without families.
Persons with disabilities in Edo State have
called on aspirants in the forthcoming Edo State Gubernatorial Election to
bring to the fore their disability focused policies and programmes.
The Chairman of Joint National Association of Persons with disabilities
(JONAPWD) Edo State Chapter, Comrade Ebose Henry in a press
statement sent to The Qualitative Magazine (TQM) on Thursday, said that over
the years, PWDs in Edo state have been clamouring for full inclusion and proper
mainstreaming of PWDs in all works of lives. Since 2012, a lot of advocacy has gone
into ensuring that all forms of discrimination and barriers faced by PWDs are
addressed but unfortunately PWDs in Edo State rights are still not protected by
law. Several governments in Edo State
have been urged to develop a lasting policy framework by enacting a disability
rights law to protect PWDs in Edo State from discrimination and harmful
practices with a commission that will oversee the implementation of the law but
they have been playing lip service to it.
“We have long said “Enough” to piecemeal
approaches and charity/sympathy attention that successive governments have
given to disability issues”, he said.
He thereby calls on all governorship
candidates in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo State to come
forth with the blueprint of the policies and programmes for PWDs in Edo State
especially the law that will protect the rights of PWDs. He reminded them that
PWDs have over 200, 000 registered voters and with their relations and
caregivers, they are capable of attracting over 500, 000 voters to a candidate.
Speaking further, he called on Governor Obaseki
to be part of history making governor by without further delay transmit to the
State House of Assembly “ A BILL FOR A LAW TO ENSURE FULL INTEGRATION OF
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES INTO THE SOCIETY AND TO ESTABLISH EDO STATE
COMMISSION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND VEST IT WITH THE RESPONSIBILITIES
FOR THEIR EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE AND THE PROTECTION OF THEIR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC,
cultural, CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS; it is presently on his table.
“We
are therefore ready to engage the Aspirants in the forthcoming election and their
political parties to understand their agenda and how it will impact the lives
of PWDs and how they can meet our demands to the collective wish of our people”
he concluded.
The Federal Government (FG) has said that the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is constituting a threat to its drive of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, following the delay to further implementation of the on-going programmes already initiated by the government before the pandemic.
Bala Yusuf Yunusa, Senior Technical Advisor, Office of Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP)on SDGs, stated this at the Lafarge Africa Plc’s Sustainability Webinar Series, themed: ‘The Decade of Action: Advancing the SDGs in a Post-Pandemic Era’. Yunusa, who represented Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, said that the pandemic has not only come as a huge cost to the nation as a result of the socio-economic impact but has also exposed the vulnerability in Nigeria’s health system.
He said there is a need for the government to work fast in scaling-up efforts to expand the fiscal space for SDGs’ implementation and also work closely with state and non-state actors to cascade and strengthen advocacy for the SDGs across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria.
“In theory, the ‘Decade of Action’ means 10 more years of active implementation of the global goals by all the stakeholders. It means 10 more years to cover grounds and achieve the transformative promise to ‘leave-no-one-behind’ by the year 2030.
Unfortunately, just as we commenced the ‘Decade of Action’ for the SDGs in January 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic across the world has now challenged the prospects of achieving the SDGs. “Indeed, beyond the health hazards and human consequences of the pandemic, the socio-economic uncertainties and disruptions come at a substantial cost to the Nigerian economy – which is largely dependent on oil and gas revenues.
Evidently, COVID-19 has revealed the vulnerability of healthcare systems in developing countries. Unfortunately, those who suffered the most are the poor and most vulnerable – women, children, people with disabilities, and older persons.
“We now have the responsibility to act quickly, act strong, and act precisely to attain the transformational change we all desire. It is said that ‘critical times call for critical measures’.
This extraordinary moment requires that we all come together to find creative and innovative ways to build more equal, inclusive, and resilient societies.
We must urgently build-back if we are to be on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030,” he said. Yunusa identified strengthening existing partnerships between the public and private sectors, financing sustainable development, improving coordination, and strengthening governance among others as critical to delivering on the SDGs.
“We need to judiciously use the re-aligned National Statistical System (NSS) to effectively track and monitor the implementation of the SDGs on an annual basis. This will inform targeted SDGs’ interventions across the country.
“We also need to consciously use the Nigeria iSDG simulation model to develop the next National Development Plan (2021-2025) and support the domestication of the Planning Model across the 36 states.
Khaled El-Dokani, CEO, Lafarge Africa Plc, speaking at the event, said the Sustainability Series would focus on what Nigerians need to do collectively to achieve more measurable impact and accelerate the SDGs, adding that is an opportunity to share best practices for adoption in Nigeria as well as agree collectively on how the country could jointly progress the SDGs from the decade of action. He emphasised the need to commercialise the SDGs and ensure changes in consumer behaviour Vanguard
Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, on Thursday revealed that only about 3,000 out of about two million Nigerians with disabilities in Lagos State received COVID-19 palliatives.
Mr Kola Ogunbiyi, a member of the group, made this known at an ongoing webinar organised by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project tagged “Transparency and Accountability in Distribution of Government COVID-19 Palliatives and the Impact on the people of Lagos”.
Speaking at the event, Kola said if other stakeholders were carried along, it would have prevented politicians from hijacking the distribution.
He said, “Neutral people should have been used in the distribution of the palliatives. We monitored the distribution in about five states and noticed that the palliatives were not sufficient. Only about 3,000 out of about 2,000,000 citizens with disabilities in Lagos State were reached.”
Also speaking at the event, Director National Orientation Agency, Waheed Ishola, accused politicians of hijacking the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives.
He said the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives would have been effective if non-politicians were involved in the process.
Waheed said, “Government would have done better if non-politicians were involved in the distribution. It would have yielded more results.
“The poor distribution of palliatives had negative effects on the people.”
Prince Paul Adelabu, the Chairman Board of Trustees JONAPWD has been appointed by Apc National Chairman, Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Committee, His Excellency, Mai Mama Buni as a member of the National Campaign Council for Ondo State Governorship Election.
The letter of appointment was presented to him by James Lalu, the representative of People with Disabilities in APC National Caretaker/Extraordinary Conventional Committee at APC Headquarters, Abuja on today Thursday, 2020.
Paul Adelabu was also recognized as Apc zonal special leader, south west.
The Qualitative Magazine TQM learnt that the council would be mobilizing funds and support to ensure successful outing of APC at Ondo gubernatorial election.
TQM is pleased with APC for expressing disability inclusion because persons with disabilities have three representatives in this National Campaign Council, Haruna Tsafe ( a Deaf), Joseph Dakop ( a person with physical disability), and Prince Paul Adelabu ( a person with physical disability).
INEC have accepted to assist Inclusive Friends Association (IFA)
in their proposed disaggregated data gathering of voters with disabilities (VWDs)
in 12 states.
This was disclosed through a letter addressed to IFA on the
12th August, 2020 signed by Rose Oriaran Anthony (Secretary to the
Commission). INEC stated that they will assist IFA in the following areas a,
Publishing sensitization messages for the data collection exercise on INEC’s
Television, Radio and Social Media Platform, b, Assigning PWD Desk Officers in
the twelve (12) states to assist in data collection of PWDs that would visit
INEC offices during the period and c, Facilitating a meeting of IFA
representative s and the relevant Departments (ICT, VR and VEP) to discuss
methodology.
Recalling that IFA proposed disaggregated data collection
for voters with disabilities in 12 states known as Data for Inclusion Project is
funded by Voice. The major goal is to increase the
participation of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Nigeria’s political and
electoral processes by collecting disaggregated data of PWDs and influencing
the reduction of physical barriers and stigma that make it difficult for PWDs
to participate in elections, the project has trained over 180 PWDs as data
enumerators.
The trainings were done both physical and virtual. They were trained on the methodology that is jointly agreed on by organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The enumerators would be collecting data of VWDs in 13 states (Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Plateau, Gombe, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Sokoto and Kano). On the interim, Edo and Ondo state’s data are collected to influence INEC’s deployment of voting / election materials in usable formats to polling units where PWDs would be voting on Election Day.
IFA and its
partners, Network for the Advancement of Rights of Persons with Visible
Disabilities (NAPVID) in Edo and the Ondo state Disabled Welfare Agency (ODWA)
have recruited PWD leaders in the 2 local governments areas (LGAs) in the 13
states to manually collect these data from local communities and also set up a
technological centre to electronically facilitate the collection of the PWD
data from most of the urban centres. Massive media sensitization programs would
also be conducted to create awareness on how PWDs can send their data into the
database. IFA, its partners and INEC Nigeria would jointly conduct this
sensitization.
In the lead up to the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, IFA and its partners would hold a PWD focused Live TV Manifesto debates for governorship candidates in Edo and Ondo states to provide opportunity for PWD leaders ask for inclusive policies from prospective governors. PWD leaders in all the local governments in both states would be trained on issue-based approaches to prepare them for the debates.
Tomorrow 21st August 2020, IFA will be holding a meeting with ICT department of INEC to take them through IFA methodology on the Data collection.
Stakeholders in the coming Edo and Ondo states governorship elections have expressed concern over political parties’ disregard to COVID-19 protocols during primaries and campaign gatherings.
The group, in a statement issued after a webinar, said it was worried that the voters, politicians and their followers might crowd the voting space and this may affect the social distance protocol on election day.
The webinar was conducted by Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), an election observer group, and had in attendance representatives from National Orientation Agency (NOA), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Person with Disabilities (PWDs) and Faith-Based Organisations.
They also raised issue over the rising hate speech and violence perpetrated by the political class, fear of voter apathy, vote trading, care for people with disability, pregnant women and the elderly to have access to vote, among others.
The group, therefore, asked INEC to call political parties to order and ensure that campaigns were conducted in line with the Covid-19 protocols.
They also urged political actors to ensure that their actions and words do not trigger violence and heat up the polity unnecessarily.
The statement signed by Faith Nwadishi, CTA’s Executive Director, said “Campaigns should be carried out responsibly and working with relevant health authorities to reduce the spread of the pandemic by activating the social distancing strategy and the wearing of face masks.
“That INEC, NCDC, Civil Society, Political parties and the National Orientation Agency should intensify Voter education and enlightenment to allay the fears of the public especially on the fear of contracting the COVID virus while coming out to vote and to be in tune with voting procedures and the electoral process.
“That INEC in collaboration with NCDC and health agencies ensure adequate deployment of health personnel at all polling units and voting areas.
“That INEC should give assurances and make adequate provisions to protect and give access to people with disability, pregnant women and the elderly.”
LYING on a couch in a dimly lit sitting room, Kanyeyichukwu Okeke, 10, whose name is shortened as Kanye stares blankly at the television screen, barely joining in the giggles and shrieks of his siblings as they watched a cartoon channel together.
His face is expressionless, so it is difficult to tell whether his attention is on the cartoon characters on the television screen, or on the paintings on the wall.
His countenance is not unusual, he often prefers to be alone, and rarely engages in conversation with people including his siblings and parents, according to his mother, Sylvia Okeke.
“He does not talk to me unless he wants something. When he comes back from school and I try to enquire about his day at school. He looks past me and walks away without a response, though he can talk, he always chooses not to talk,” she said.
Muriel Attah, an autistic teenager has been out of school since March after the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Kanye wasn’t always like this, he was playful as a baby until he clocked two years when Sylvia noticed he would babble incoherently, refuse to play with toys and stare into blank space without blinking for a long time.
Months later, after repeated visits to different hospitals, diagnosis revealed that Kanye had autism. This revelation shocked his parents even though they were unsure what it meant.
“We didn’t know any child on the autism spectrum, so we didn’t know what to expect from him. We realised that we spent more time teaching him how to eat, use the toilet by himself and other things in order for him to maintain his hygiene without external help which was not a problem for his siblings,” she said.
Sylvia struggled between caring for Kanye who needs greater attention and her other children. The tasks is daunting, but she wanted Kanye to be self-sufficient without depending on others.
At age six, Kanye has however shown keen interest in painting. He would draw on any available paper or paint it, using pencils. This interest prompted his parents to hire a personal art teacher to coach him.
Kanye, insert, at an arts show of abstract paintings at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos. Credit: GuardianArts
His daily routine has been carefully managed and choreographed to revolve around his school classes, art class, and his basketball lessons to suit his autistic mind.
After several failed school placements, his parents settled for Auduvie International School in Maitama Abuja, a privately owned regular school that runs a department that caters to children with special needs.
Annual fee at the new school is above a million naira which will take a parent who earns a minimum wage of N30,000 at least 4 years and 8 months of savings to be able to afford Kanye’s school fee.
This exorbitant fee puts pressure even on the rich parents who raise more than child.
Section 17 of the 2018 Nigeria Discrimination against Persons with Disability Act makes it mandatory for the Federal Government to provide education for people with developmental disabilities to secondary school level free of charge, but the law is hardly enforced as the responsibility still lies on parents or guardians.
In March, the COVID-19 pandemic struck Kanye’s world, disrupting his schedule and setting him back on his progress levels in interacting with people as the lockdown kept him confined indoors for the first time in years.
It took over two weeks for Kanye to adjust to a new routine of making the computer screen a part of his learning process as his school migrated from physical to virtual classes, including his speech therapy sessions.
Five months after the schools were closed, the Federal Government is yet to announce the re-opening of schools since March 20.
Despite making provision for online learning for typical kids on the Ministry of Education’s website, children with developmental disabilities educational needs were not prioritised in the online classes.
Sylvia told The ICIR that Kanye’s learning rate from online teaching could not be compared to the physical presence of a teacher but if learning was taking place at all it was better than nothing.
“It is now a new normal for us. You can’t compare an online class to a physical class because they are a completely different environment, especially for autistic children. It is better than nothing at least he is learning,” she said.
According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Sciences, Kanye is amongst the over 600,000 autistic children in Nigeria, with unfettered access to online learning and therapy paid for, through out-of-pocket spendings by his parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For thousands of other children in Nigeria with autism who do not have access to privately funded special education unlike Kanye, they have remained stuck at home without any form of academic learning until schools are re-opened.
A Handicapped System
Another case of autism is Mufid Lawal, a 13-year-old boy. But he is adept at playing with computers or electronic gadgets. His eyes brighten, at the sight of an iPad or phone as he loves exploring the software applications on phones and computers.
He enjoys the company of his parents and siblings, but when he gets agitated, he would scream and slap himself and his siblings within reach, or he bites himself with his teeth.
His father Akeem Lawal describes him as an electronics freak and believes Mufid could be an excellent computer programmer though he has not been able to find the right school where he will be taught how to code.
Akeem Lawal and his wife Sikinat speaking to The ICIR. Credit: The ICIR
Since the outset of the pandemic in March, Mufid who attends an Abuja-based privately-owned special school, Zamarr Institute has not received any form of academic learning from the classroom online which he said the school offered at a fee.
Akeem said the effect of the school closure has made Mufid lose learning time, but he believes it would be regained when schools reopen due to Mufid’s retentive memory.
“Its been challenging because before the pandemic Mufid had a schedule on his school timetable for everyday activity but since schools were closed, he has been engaged with watching TV programmes or playing except when I’m home to teach him.
“He has a retentive memory and I know when school re-opens he will pick up from where they left off,” he said.
The World Bank Education and COVID-19, 2020 report published in June, projects that school closure induced by COVID-19 which lasts for five months could result in a reduction of $872 in yearly earnings for each student in primary and secondary schools.
It also estimates a loss of $10 trillion in earnings overtime for the current generation of students who will lose over five months as their countries will be driven off-track to achieving their Learning Poverty goals.
Akeem told The ICIR that Mufid had improved over the years from when he got admitted at Zamarr Institute which he describes as “impressive” but hopes for skills imparting educational model that will make Mufid self-reliant in the future.
“I don’t want Mufid to be relying on other people later in life I want him to have a skill that will make him self reliant. I heard of someone who could teach coding but when he told me to pay N300,000 monthly for him to teach Mufid, I backed out because it was quite expensive,” he said.
Akeem said he spent N1,500,000 initially on Mufid’s yearly school fees which strains his financial resources, making him withdraw Mufid from school for three months.
“After I stopped Mufid from attending school, the management reached out to me to ask why and when I told them the reason, we reached a compromise and negotiated on an affordable payment plan,” he said.
Though Akeem is unsatisfied about Mufid’s learning pace with online classes when asked about the effects of school closure.
“Mufid knows the time for all the programmes on satellite TV so if a programme is going on and his class clashes with the programme then he will always be distracted no matter what you do if his mind is not there he won’t be able to learn. This is a major issue I have with the online class,” he said.
Evidence from research by Gnanathusharan Rajendran, professor of psychology at Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom, UK, explains that individuals with autism spectrum disorders unusually have an affinity for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), making it an ideally suited area for those on the spectrum.
The study suggests that since autistic children have a more dominant left side of the brain, they will have a high tendency at excelling in jobs that require precision and repetition which includes updating databases, coding, and analytics.
Mufid’s computer skill set is still in doubt, despite attending a special needs school. His expertise is yet to be harnessed while his father seeks for a school outside the country where he believes his son will learn to develop his ICT skills.
A Familiar Road
Since the pandemic started, Muriel Atta 17, takes her classes in one of the empty rooms in their house that once served as a store which now bears semblance to a classroom setting.
Before schools were shut down across the country due to COVID-19, five days a week Miriel was always dressed up at about 7 a.m with a backpack straddling her back as she prepares to spend over 6 hours in the classroom.
The change from an actual classroom to the virtual one is a sharp contrast for Muriel who is autistic, but she is still maintaining her weekly routine.
The room is equipped with a board for writing, table and chairs as her younger sister in senior secondary school acts as Miriel’s teacher to kickstart Miriel’s day. While their parents attend to their various day jobs.
Her mother, Edith Ati – Attah, a video producer on a gospel talk show programme recalls that three months after Muriel was born she wasn’t responding to eye movements. Still, the doctors told her to bring Miriel for proper examination when she clocked one year.
“I was told when I went back a year later that she was cross-eyed, then she was referred from Gwagwalada Teaching hospital to Kaduna Eye Center, but the tests showed she didn’t have a problem with her eyes. It was at the Ahmadu Bello teaching hospital where the diagnosis showed Muriel was autistic,” she said.
Edith was distraught. The first time she was confronted with the word “Autism” was concerning her daughter’s wellbeing.
“It was a shock to me in the beginning. Sometimes I would cry, seeing I had a child I couldn’t relate with for instance when I would go to pick her up from school if her father was busy immediately she sees me she would start crying because she was close to her father.
“And I would think she doesn’t know me, but now Miriel has come out of her shell, she interacts with everyone at home, her siblings, cousins unlike in the early stage. Now, I see myself as chosen of God to take care of his special creation which is Miriel, and that makes me privileged,” she said.
Her next battle was finding a suitable school for Muriel.
“It was a miracle for Miriel to be able to attend a special school because she had been literarily rejected in two schools before she was admitted in her current school,” Edith said.
Miriel had attended a mainstream school initially until the school administration informed Edith they won’t be able to cope with her daughter.
Based on the recommendation of a friend she enrolled Miriel at a different school which, according to her, had the worst form of treatment for her daughter.
“The first day I came to drop Miriel the proprietor saw that I was with another child and asked if she was my daughter and when I said yes she told me I would have to admit her alongside Miriel because she won’t admit Miriel alone.
“I protested that my other daughter was in a different school but she succeeded in blackmailing me to enroll, saying that was her condition for admitting Miriel so I agreed,” she said.
Miriel was always locked in a different room with iron bars in the school and kept away from other pupils and whenever she came to pick her up from school her pampers were always wet with urine.
She withdrew her daughter from the school and three months later Muriel enrolled in a special needs school in Jabi, Abuja.
“After two weeks in the new school Miriel was toilet trained which was a big improvement, she could also feed herself, and the speed at which she crossed those milestones was commendable,” she said.
Edith Ati- Attah, Miriel’s mother.
Edith says Muriel is at a golden stage of her life as she is always happy and trying to interact with people, and thinks it is a result of the quality of special education she has been receiving. However, she was already learning howto read and write when the school closed in March.
Muriel has lost over four months of learning time though she has access to online learning provided by the Federal Government. She continues to receive any form of education she can glean from her sister until schools are re-opened.
While the effect of the pandemic in Nigeria has forced schools closure, understanding what Muriel thinks of this is complicated. Does she miss her friends in school or is bored with being stuck at home. No one knows.
An outlook of their future
Omotoke Olowo, the founder of The Autism Awareness Foundation, TAAF, an autism advocacy group in Ogun State, told The ICIR that the challenges faced by children with developmental disabilities were overwhelming and will remain so until the Nigeria Discrimination against Persons with Disability Act is enforced.
“This is Nigeria, and we know how difficult it is to get access to health care, education even for neurotypicals (individuals without disabilities) then imagine a child with special needs it just doubles the scale of difficulty.
“Rome was not built in a day which means we will continue to speak up and pursue the interests of persons with developmental disabilities until the Nigerian Disability Act becomes sacrosanct. We really hope it happens in the nearest future,” she said.
Just like parents everywhere, Sylvia wants the best for her son, but she says the Act needs to be amended because it has vague laws if the government is serious about its implementation.
“The Disability Act has to be revisited and amended because it doesn’t take care of people on the autistic spectrum. For instance, the Act says education and health care of children with disability should be subsidised. That is a broad term without specifics.
“What are you subsidising?” She queried. “Are you subsidising therapy? Are you subsidising their books? I have been talking about that disability bill with some parents, and I feel it should be amended to accommodate the needs of children on the autistic spectrum,” she concluded.
Since the civil war in Nigeria, not many incidents have shaken the nation as the Boko Haram insurgency cum rural banditry in Northern Nigeria. Between July, 20-26, the International Organization for Refugee, IOM reports that the attack in Katsina and Kaduna states alone affected 1,374 individuals with 18 injuries and 17 fatalities. From the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugee, UNHCR 2020 midyear report; there are 5.4 million persons in need of protection, of which 2.5 are targeted for the protection sector response and only 31% has been reached so far in the BAY (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe) states. The insurgency has likewise increased the number of People with Disabilities (PWDs) in the Northern part of the country due to mutilation. A lot of whom now live in the Internally Displaced Person, IDP camps/communities.
Amongst the groups of People with Disabilities, people with physical disability who have mobility challenges are affected differently and more indigent. Interventions within the IDP camps do not take into cognizance the special needs of this group.
From the basics of having a database for People with Disabilities to running intervention programs that address their specific needs, the mobility- challenged are excluded from variant activities and programs within the camps. The system in the IDPs camps intentionally or unintentionally wields against the mobility challenged in quite a number of ways.
Seventy-six percent of Internally Displaced Persons cited food as their unmet need, and 54% listed blanket/mat (found in dignity kit) as the most needed non-food item in both the IDP camps and communities. Fitly, it is no surprise that when those items are infrequently made available, it comes with a brawl among the IDPs to obtain them. However, for PWDs the struggle is compounded by other hindrances.
“Disability has made life difficult for us. We can’t stand long in the queue to collect food. We need food, we need dignity kits: nets, mats, and blankets.”
Mobility to places of distribution for relief materials and physical capacity to struggle with others are predominantly part of the hindrances. This is abetted by two factors; some of them do not have wheelchairs or the needed mobility aid and some have lost their caregivers to the insurgency.
When they are not able to get to points of distribution, they are only seldomly lucky enough to have a close relative or a caregiver around who gets for them. Often times too, they experience discrimination at the point of distribution.
Since food is not always available in the camps and particularly the IDP communities. Internally displaced persons are required every now and then to fend for themselves.
The activities of campers fending for themselves comes with its own difficulties, especially for the mobility challenged persons. Some of those activities such as transportation to the market, getting firewood from bushes, apparently positions a big threat and challenge to the PWDs because of their physical determent; hence they need to live on the help of others which isn’t always guaranteed.
According to reliefweb “more than 600,000 people are staying in highly congested displacement camps across North East. Consequences include lack of access to basic services, aid dependency, cyclical cholera outbreaks, rampant fires and deep protection concerns”. The congested state of the IDP camps has raised concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus. More so is the apprehension over access to preventive, diagnostic and curative facilities and services.
“The PWDs are most challenged due to their disabilities, where there are faced with serious hunger, exposed more to COVID 19, very limited medical help could get to them due to lack of mobility and restrictions of movement” – Humanitarian worker, Bauchi State.
Restriction of movement and other constraints associated with the Covid-19 pandemic have established a different regimen the challenges of PWDs; they are disproportionately affected. For example, additional movement is now required to access relief materials which before then were brought to the camps/community; to access covid-19 testing, general health facilities and even employment opportunities, without a corresponding improved system to enhance mobility and transportation generally.
Another inconspicuous discrimination against PWDs is the diminutive or total lack of representation within the IDP camps and communities. It’s observed that PWDs are hardly included in camp leadership. A humanitarian worker and leader of the ASHH Foundation validated this observation in her statement – “In my five years of working in the IDP community, I have not met with any PWD in a leadership position”
In Bauchi state, it was confirmed that there are organizations and social associations for PWDs outside the communities, but there has been no integration between the PWDs at the IDP communities and those organizations. The lack of integration further blurs the visibility of the mobility challenge as such integration improves socialization and could abet to amplify their struggles.
Resolving the Challenges of PWDs There are not so many reports particularly at local levels, that include an assessment of and give enough devotion to People with Disabilities (PWDs). Most assessment plan limits indices to sex (male and female), age (children and aged) and geographical location. As a result, databases for PWDs are scarcely obtainable.
As suggested by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children in its 2008 resource kits for field workers, it is important to have a database for People with Disabilities in all IDP camps and communities. This is useful to developing camp processes, systems, and interventions that are participatory and inclusive, especially for the said groups. Data collection could be facilitated through a partnership between resourceful non-government organizations and government organizations. Further segregation of this data using age, gender is equally necessary.
An intervention plan that involves all key government and non-government actors, and proceeds from both individual and community needs assessment for PWDs must be conducted with due diligence and in the most participatory methods. A right-based approach as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability should equally be adopted during the assessment process.
The intervention plan that ensues must take into cognizance the access to relief materials, facilities such as latrines, water etc, health and transportation to fulfill other needs.Relative to nutrition, special tools to assist with cooking and feeding; availing of food with specific nutritional requirement is essential.
The discrimination against PWDs, and their exclusion from camps’ leadership has silently promoted their invisibility especially during eminent decision-making, which affects them.
To effectively resolve the challenges of PWDs in IDP camps and communities, the system must be modified to include them in all decision-making processes within the camps/communities and even at higher levels. A quota leadership system may as well be adopted; this is imperative to have an informed and empathetic understanding of the needs and desirable interventions of this group.
Moreso, specific demands of PWDs such as provision of special aids and skill acquisition trainings should be made available.
“We want you people to provide us with life skill activities so that we can have something doing during the day”
We are handicap we cannot go out to work and to provide food for us is a big challenge, no food, we are just stranded; we will like you people to help us with life skill activities and provision for food”
Agric camp, Borno State A skill acquisition scheme that is customized to fill the needs and desires of people with disabilities should be organized. This empowerment will increase their employment opportunity and financial bouyancy. This stance also aligns with the International Labor Organization standard to promote equal opportunity in training and employment.
We want organizations to help us with wheelchairs so that we can be able to go everywhere and do anything by our self” says one of the girls at Tsangaya Camp.
Mobility aids inter alia wheelchairs, prosthesis should be provided by the government, NGOs and even benevolent individuals in the society. Furthermore, there should be an empathetic restructuring of the camp. Structures such as railings, sidewalks, paving road, etc. must be put in place. This would go a long way in easing movement to access camps programs, dignity kit, other relief materials, services, and facilities. Correspondingly, it would reduce the burden involved in movement on the caregivers.
One of the hallmarks of a civilized society is giving all its members an equal opportunity to succeed. On this premise, the Nigerian government must run a system that in every way improve the lives of PWDs and avail them the opportunity to function as every other member of the society. Having a system that acknowledges the voice of PWDs as well as implementing the suggestions referenced above may be a good way to start.
Beautiful Gate Handicapped People Centre, Jos distribute fertilizers to displaced Persons in Mangu LGA in order to boost food production and identify with the displaced persons, widows and orphans across Mangu LGA, Plateau State.
The Executive Director of the Centre, Chief Ayuba Gufwan Burki said instead of distributing food stuffs, the centre deemed it fit to donate Fertilizers.
He said the gesture is sharing in their pains and identifying with them in their trying times charging them to trust God and continue to work towards the attainment of peace and security.
Also speaking at the event, Chairman Board of Trustees of Beautiful Gate Handicapped People Centre, Engr. Solomon Chikan said the input was given in love and urged them not to sell the product but use same for better yield.
President Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA), Chief Joseph Gwankat, lauded the Centre for their humanitarian gesture targeted at the most vulnerable in affected communities in the Local Government Area. He called on government, other NGOs and well spirited individuals to emulate the kind gesture by coming to the aid of the people affected by violent crisis. Community Head of Kulben, Da HRH Ibrahim Dayau appreciated what the centre is doing nationally and pray God to open greater doors to the Centre.
He commended Chief Ayuba Gufwan Burki for the philanthropic work he is doing and for making himself available to be used of God to impact lives and the society.
The gesture saw 75 Beneficiaries getting a Bag of Fertilizer each for the farming season.
Beneficiaries who could not hide their joy applauded the Centre for identifying with them and putting smiles on their faces with the fertilizers being given to them.
The event took place at Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA) Office Complex in Mangu adhering the COVID-19 Protocols.
