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People with disabilities will enjoy same rights as other Guyanese

Jun 08, 2008 News

– Minister Manickchand

Probation and child protection officers recently underwent sensitisation training to prepare them to work with People with Disabilities (PWDs).
At the opening session of the forum which was held at the National Library’s Conference Room, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand said her ministry has a clear policy that PWDs will enjoy the same rights of persons without disabilities.
She noted that implementing the policy lies in the hands of the ministry’s staff.
“We will create at the level of the administration the environment where you will be allowed to realise that implementation that we speak of,” she told the gathering.
She added that in order to truly provide these services, officers will have to reach out to PWDs.  “We have to recognise that PWDs may not be able to access our services because of their very disability and if that is the case then we have to take our services and the services of the ministry to where those persons are until we remove this accessibility that arises from disabilities,” said Minister Manickchand.
Chairman of the NCD, Evelyn Hamilton said, “The training is crucial because the commission sees its relationship with human services and social development as integral to achieving its mission to measurably improve the lives of persons living with disabilities.”
The relationship is expected to be strengthened after the Persons with Disability Bill, which facilitates the incorporation of 31 fundamental rights as recommended by the United Nations Convention, is passed.
“To be able to support PWDs in getting what in many cases are their basic constitutional rights, we need the support of the three key ministries and in particular the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security.”
The NCD works with the Ministries of Education, Health and Labour, Human Services and Social Security.
Minister Manickchand said her Ministry has been working with the NCD and recently there was a collaboration to create a register of disabled persons. The exercise, which is fulfillment of Government’s promise made in 2006, started in February and will allow for easier access to PWDs.
“It’s going to allow us to reach those persons when we have various programmes and interventions going on,” Minister Manickchand said.
Registration forms were issued to all social services officers, all regional departments, and other places where they would have been easily accessible. Currently there are in excess of 3000 persons registered. However, this is not believed to be a true representation of all PWDs. As such the register will be published to allow PWDs to ensure that their names are on the list.
Probation and child protection officers were encouraged to see the training as a way to improve the services they offer.
They were told that in order to fully appreciate the training they must believe that PWDs have rights and have the ability to contribute to society.
–    Meanwhile, Minister Manickchand said the ministry will be commencing sign language training to erase the difficulties of officers communicating with PWDs. She said this is necessary in order to fulfill the ministry’s function of providing emotional counselling.

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