The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development will adopt a multi-faceted approach which will also focus on the poor and vulnerable, the elderly, refugees, IDPs, persons with disabilities, trafficked persons, petty traders, among others in its response to COVID-19 in the country.
 
The efforts of the Ministry will be part of the ongoing interventions of the Presidential Task Force on covid-19, but with a focus on the vulnerable groups in the country. 
 
in a press release signed by Salisu Na’inna Dambatta SA (Media and Press Affairs on Friday, it was guided that The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq announced this after a meeting with all the agencies of the Ministry where strategies were fashioned out for the nationwide response with emphasis to target the most vulnerable groups in the society.
 
“We are in an emergency and work must start immediately,” the Minister directed. 
 
The Ministry’s COVID-19 Response Committee comprises all the agencies supervised by the Ministry working jointly and speedily to deliver emergency relief to vulnerable segments of our society. 
 
“Given the current global crisis as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, we must work together and deploy all of our resources in unison to support the national efforts for maximum impact,” the Minister emphasised. 
 
The National Emergency Management Agency under the Ministry will lead in delivering services and relief to people and most especially the vulnerable groups along with the other agencies, including NAPTIP, the North East Development Commission ( NEDC) SDGs and the four components of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) namely N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme (NHSFP). 
 
The Minister restated that the Ministry and the agencies “have a collective responsibility to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and to save lives and alleviate suffering of people in line with its mission and mandate.  It is also our responsibility to act and coordinate all interventions that promote social development and strengthen social systems that provide support for and protection of vulnerable groups in Nigeria.” 
 
The Minister explained that the Ministry-led intervention will prioritize prevention and community engagement and increase sensitization to curtail spread of COVID-19 particularly among the person of concern in the implementation of the initiative to drive the overall national strategy adopted by the PTF on Covid-19. 
 
The plan includes release of food items, early payments to beneficiaries of Conditional Cash Transfer, N-Power, grassroot communication of Covid-19 control measures using personnel, equipment, GEEP infrastructure, the provision of protective items such as face masks, sanitisers and soap for hand washing. 
 
The Ministry also directed all its agencies to make available both human and material resources to NEMA and the Presidential Task Force for use in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 
 
“To provide some respite for the vulnerable, we will provide targeted social interventions to them to ensure every Nigerian identified as a vulnerable 

person receives support. We will equally leverage the existing social intervention programmes to provide safety nets nationwide, ” the Minister added. 

 Sadiya Umar Farouq said the “importance of the task ahead of us cannot be overemphasized as our innovations and strategies emanating from our collective efforts will cushion the backlash of the ongoing crisis. Given, the lack of precedent for a total lock down, I call on you all to be innovative, flexible, transparent and supportive while being on the lookout for lessons to be learned for future application.”
 
 

Students of Government Girls Secondary School, Dutse Alhaji, Abuja sang their own composed song during the 2020 We Ring The Bell 2020 event organized by Daughters of Charity Child Empowerment Programme which took place in their school assembly ground on Wdnesday 18th March, 2020. See the video below

Daughters of Charity Child Empowerment Programme organized 2020 WE RING THE BELL to draw the attention of the government and other stakeholders to the implementation of National Policy on Inclusion.

The annual event initiated and supported by Liliane Fonds took place at Government Girls Secondary School, Dutse Alhaji, Abuja.

1985 students of the school rang the bell with the metal plates in style to affirm their non-discrimination of children with disabilities. Watch the video below

by Chris Agbo

As Nigeria is battling COVID-19 pandemic and state governors have been adopting different preventive measures.

Anambra state Governor have not been found wanting in ensuring that his state that have not witnessed any case stay free from the virus. He has demonstrated this by ensuring that all state functionaries are on their top gear to ensure that Anambra state stays free from COVID-19.

His Special Adviser on Disabilities Matters, Barrister Chuks Ezewuzie through a statement sent to us has recommended best practical measures to be adopted by persons with disabilities to curb the spread of Coronavirus.

Barrister Ezewuzie expressed fear that the virus will hit the disability community harder if the stakeholders fails to take necessary steps to help keep PWDs who are the most vulnerable group from being infected.

He said that the World Health organization (W.H.O) recommends “DO NOT TOUCH” as one of the measures to prevent contracting the highly contagious disease but unfortunately “do not touch” is not for the blind because it is through touching that the blind normally find the way, the hand is just the eyes of the blind so they must touch things around them.

In the issue of social distancing also recommended by WHO, it will be difficult to apply that on wheelchair user, if the person cannot afford motorized wheelchair, he or she must depend on personal care attendant (PCA) to push the wheelchair. The blind and a crutches users as a matter of necessity must hold unto staircase hand rails for support.

“It is obvious that the Deaf will not be able to hear the announcements, radio Jingles or community alerts to follow the campaign.

He proffered some measures that will best assist PWDs at this time, he said that the blind and all personal care attendants must imbibe the culture of washing of hands always and both of them must always wear hand gloves and face masks and the blind will be holding the guide’s shoulder to avoid holding hands or dragging with a stick.

He also said that the conventional practice of holding the guide’s elbow is now discouraged because “W.H.O” advised people to cough on their elbow.

The another challenge for the blind is fact that reading the Braille while wearing gloves will constitute a barrier. Volunteer readers are therefore needed to bridge this gap. Volunteer readers must maintain 6ft space between the reader and the blind.

He went to ensure the blind to utilize the computer based speech synthesizer for their reading when they are available.

“The personal care attendants on wearing gloves must also wear mask, while pushing the wheelchair and avoid touching the wheelchair.

He also said that family members of the Deaf person must explain the announcements and jingles to the deaf or call their attention to OGDM messages in sign language.

He advised that the Deaf should be mindful of members of the public touching them as a way of communicating with them but rather they should use eye contact communicate.

Deaf persons and sign language interpreters are advised to limit the frequency of touching their face when communicating or interpreting messages.

Families, offices and agencies should utilize the services of professional sign language interpreters employed by the state government.

He concluded by bringing to the notice of the public that Sign language interpreters and protective gloves are made available through of the office of the Governor on Disability Matters for those who may need them, courtesy of His Excellency Governor Wille Obiano, OGUGUA NDI OLUSI (The Comforter of persons with Disabilities).

by Chris Agbo

Dr. Chike Okogwu speaking on AIT Focus NIgeria anchored by Amaechi Anaekwe on Friday said that state governors should contact Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) Executives in their respective states to reach out to lowest persons with disabilities to provide palliatives to them at this time of COVID-19.

During this interview via Skype, he called on those making donations to assist in curbing the spread of this coronavirus to ensure that their gesture includes persons with disabilities.

He assured that the 25million Nigerians with disabilities can be reached and persons with disabilities like him can give this information on how they can be reached for free.

He also said that he has been reaching out to NGOs and individuals to see how persons with disabilities can be reached at this time to help them stay at home and avoid being infected by coronavirus.

He lamented that at a time like this, people need to be reminded to remember persons with disabilities and as vulnerable people, they face more challenges at a time like this.

The Lagos State Chapter of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) has suggested the need for disability-inclusion strategies as a key step towards ensuring that youths with disabilities are not left out in the development programs of the Lagos State Government.

This was contained in the Association’s Position Paper presented to the Honorable Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Olusegun Daudu when the JONAPWD State Chairman, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo led a 4-man delegation of the Association’s members on an advocacy visit to the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.

The Honorable Commissioner who led the Permanent Secretary and other top officials of the Ministry of Youth and Social Development to receive the JONAPWD delegation, appreciated the visit; pledging that the Lagos State Government would not relent in ensuring that persons with disabilities are prioritized in all policies and programs of the Sanwo-Olu Government.

Dr. Adebayo had lauded the Ministry and the state government for making visible efforts towards protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in Lagos State. Adebayo however observed that youth with disabilities were still lagging behind as beneficiaries of the very robust Lagos State Youth Policy and programs.

Dr. Adebayo while presenting the position paper, enumerated some of the challenges of persons with disabilities in noting that there are, “Absence of social support and rehabilitational services for PWDs (especially children) and their families at local and community levels and where such exist, there is very low level of awareness due to lack of adequate information about such

“High unemployment levels among youths with disabilities and lack of appropriate platforms for promoting talents among young persons with disabilities in the ICT, Entertainment and sports sectors.”

The State’s JONAPWD Chair however recommended that, “the Ministry should support the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA) to organize Annual Disability Summit to harvest ideas and set agenda for disability-inclusion in the State Government’s development programs

“The Ministry should strongly consider the integration of Disability Support and Resource Centres within its existing Social Service Centres in all the LGAs and LCDAs.

“The Ministry should encourage and mobilize the private sector to employ qualified persons with disabilities.

“The Ministry should, in line with the youth policy, facilitate political participation for youths with disabilities by ensuring appointment of one person with disability as Supervisory Counselor in all the LGAs and LCDAs in the State.”

The Association also passionately requested the Ministry to sustain the granting of subvention to the Association and other functional disability groups in the State.

Responding, the Honorable Commissioner promised to address the requests tendered by JONAPWD and assured the Association that its doors remained open to persons with disabilities; noting that the Ministry would be happy to strengthen its partnership with JONAPWD. The Commissioner also advised the Association to strengthen its collaboration with LASODA especially in its engagement with other Agencies of government. (BONEWS)

Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) has suspended all its physical meetings and activities on 23 March due the continued spreading of coronavirus(COVID-19).

In their official facebook page on Monday, they wrote this

To help stop the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) is suspending all its physical meetings/activities from March 23 until the condition improves.

However, work continues virtually from home.

All safety messages should be captured in an accessible format for People with Disabilities.

#Staysafe.

by Chris Agbo

WE RING THE BELL programme was initiated by The Liliane Foundation, Netherlands( an NGO that focuses on the empowerment of children and youngsters with disabilities from 0-25 years, using the CBR approach, for child development and the creation of enabling environment) is aimed at raising the awareness of the government and the general public on the need for inclusive education for children and youngsters with disabilities.

Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul Province of Nigeria through The office of Child Empowerment Programme supported by Liliane Foundation on Wednesday 18th March organized 2020 We Ring The Bell at Government Girls Secondary School Dutse Abuja where over 1,500 students rang the bell alongside their teachers. It was a colourful event as the girls rang the bell using their metallic plates and they sang their own composed song to affirm their acceptance of children with disabilities as classmates and playmates.

The coordinator of Daughters of Charity Child Empowerment Programme, Sister Fidelia Unigwe in her opening speech stated that We Ring The Bell is an annual event initiated by the Liliane Foundation to draw the attention of the media, stakeholders and the public towards inclusive education. Speaking further, she said that it is not enough for government to have plot schools in locations where children with disabilities will be in the boarding facilities, they should go beyond that to make schools in rural communities inclusive because it will make it easier for children with disabilities to go to school with their siblings and they will also have advantage of parental care. It will be easy for their caregivers to take them to school because of proximity of the schools.

The Principal of the school, Haijah Rukaiya Husseni said that the inclusive education if it is fully implemented will bridge the gap in education because it will provide opportunity for the style of learning of the children with disabilities to be included in the school’s curriculum.

The event also witnessed a presentation by Dr. Adebayo Adebukola where he described inclusive education as an emergency case in Nigeria. He also said that inclusive education simply means good education because whatever children with disabilities can learn in special school, they can also learn in the conventional school, inclusive school is best applied in scare resources, it is more expensive to build special schools and also build other schools. It is cheaper to make disability facilities available in the conventional schools and make them inclusive and have every child to learn in the same place.  

The students through a drama presentation showcase the The ten “urgent calls.

The participants of the event were the principal of the school, the teachers and students, Master of the Ceremony Comrade Musa Muazu Musa, Mr Rasak Adekoya(the speaker, Persons with disabilities Parliament),  a representative from Sightsavers, Mr. Abel Aisnedion, the representative of  the Honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Ekujereonye Bede Obinna, the president, National Association of Blind, FCT Chapter, Abdulmumuni Ujah(Chairman JONAPWD FCT), Dr. Adebayo Adebukola(Chairman JONAPWD Lagos and the facilitator), Theophilus Odaudu( Program coordinator Disability Rights Funds), media outfit such as Clearview TV, News Agency of Nigeria, NTA, ASO radio and TV, Possibilities TV Show on Catholic TV, AbilityPlusTV on NTA Knowledge, Will and Zeal on AIT and The Qualitative Magazine(a Disability advocacy Magazine), Special Schools such as Daughters of Charity Hope Center in Kubwa, Abuja, School for the blind, Jabi Abuja and a cross section of persons with disabilities.

MORE PICTURES:

By Chris Agbo

Disability Rights Advocacy Center(DRAC) on Tuesday in Abuja organized a Validation Meeting to present the preliminary findings of the Break The Cycle (BTC) project’s baseline and needs assessment to the project stakeholders, get their feedback on results from their area councils, fill information gaps that may have been identified during the survey, and validate the findings.

Break the Cycle Project is an Empowerment project to Combat Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities in the FCT. A baseline survey was conducted in all the wards of the six area councils of FCT and New Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa state.

The baseline survey was a study to proffer answers to questions on the socio-economic status of WGWDs in Abuja and environs, in addition to drawing meaningful conclusions as to the gap to access to opportunities and social protection services for WGWDs in Abuja and environs and make recommendation to guide BTC project implementation.

In the findings, all the political wards in the FCT except for 2 were covered and a total of 1,156 WGWDs were interviewed. Some of the key findings were 89.7% of WGWDs are unemployed and 96.8% have not been employed in the past 5 years, 91.5% of WGWDs are not aware of any state / national social protection initiatives targeted at the vulnerable people in Abuja and New Karu 99.4 % don’t even know about it, ages 15-20 (48.5%) are mostly exposed to Gender Based Violence, 78% of the respondents are not aware of the services available for WGWDs that experience GBV in Abuja and Environs, 81% of them agreed that WGWDs needs to be empowered to prevent GBV, 76% of the respondents said that WGWDs are not involved in the decision making in their families and the society, 64% of the respondents said that they are not aware of WGWDs occupying any appointive or elective governance/ leadership position.

The data also shown that there is no program for women and girls with disability in almost all the communities visited, no access to financial services and they do not have network to Village Saving and Loans Association (VSLA). There is also evidence from the survey from Abuja and New Karu LG of Nasarawa state that 90% of the respondents asserted that lack of money hindered them to access health services.

The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu while speaking at the event said that the Survey is part of the Break The Cycle Project which aimed to improving the socio-economic status of WGWDs in FCT and New Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State as a means of reducing their vulnerability to violence. The baseline survey is to gather evidence on the issues that will strengthen DRAC’s intervention at the communities and also to engage government and other relevant stakeholders.

“We brought stakeholders together to look at the findings and fill in the gaps (if any) and discuss the challenges in the field. The project focused on WGWDs because they are more vulnerable among persons with disabilities as well as among women without disabilities. Their gender and disability status triple their vulnerability and exposure”.

Speaking further, she said that they will carry along stakeholders in the 14 communities that they will be carrying out interventions to ensure that there will be no bottlenecks and achieve set goals within the time limit.

“We are at the pilot stage of the project and from the FCT, with the hope of scaling up to other states”.

She called on the government to dedicate more resources towards social protection of WGWDs and the existing programmes should also include WGWDs.

The Stakeholders at the meeting were community leaders, teachers, government officers, OPDs and CSOs, they were able to look at the findings critically pointed out area that needs improvement for subsequent survey and make recommendations for interventions.

Break The Cycle Project (BTC) is a 3 year project of DRAC funded by UKAID through Christofel Blinden Mission (CBM).

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MORE PICTURES FROM THE MEETING

Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State has pledged to give speedy assent to a bill for the establishment of an agency for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs). Buni made this known on Wednesday while receiving the All Progressive Congress (APC) Northeast zonal leader, Mohammed Abba Isa at the Government House, Damaturu.

According to Buni, “the establishment of this agency will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of disabled people and other vulnerable groups in society.”

While thanking the governor for the agency, Isa commended him for carrying everybody along. His words: “You are a digital and intellectually mobile governor of Yobe. We were able to discuss issues bordering on the welfare of persons living with disabilities.

“As a leader of persons with disabilities in the state and the entire zone, I shared with his excellency the concerns of the community with specific interest on disabled persons in Yobe and he has promised a better welfare for PWDs.”

According to him, the disability bill has passed the second reading at the state House of Assembly. He also mentioned the issues of social protection intervention and humanitarian services to the disabled.

“Whenever the bill is signed into law, disabled persons shall be guaranteed equal treatment as other citizens in the state,” noting that it is the responsibility of government organs and authorities to ‘adopt and promote’ policies of integrating disabled persons into the mainstream society.”