Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Canada funds campaign to advance implementation of Disability Act
A section of the youths during a recent training workshop
“We have gotten very little so far when it comes to our rights and the Disability Act,” said Mr. Ganesh Singh an advocate for persons living with disabilities.
Singh, an Executive of the Guyana Society for the Blind as well as a few other organisations aimed at advancing the rights of persons with disability, understands all too well the impact of living with a disability as he was some years ago diagnosed as totally blind. It is for this reason that he has been in the forefront advocating for the full implementation of the Guyana Disability Act of 2010.
To aid the efforts in this regard, support has been forthcoming from the Canadian High Commission through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. With the sum of some $2.5 million, Singh revealed that, through Young Voices Guyana [YVG], advocacy is being amplified for persons with various forms of disabilities.
YVG is an initiative which offers young persons with disabilities in developing countries the opportunity to empower themselves and change the way disability is viewed. It functions as the medium through which they can develop campaigning, advocacy and media skills, learn about human rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as share their experience with other young persons with disabilities to build friendships and self-confidence.
As the Coordinator for the latest advocacy movement, Singh said that an initial bout of training in this regard was held during the weekend of November 18, and November 19, 2017. The training workshop, which was hosted at the Resource Unit for the Blind and Visually Impaired at Albert Street, Georgetown, saw some 20 youths with disabilities participating. Training workshops have also been held in Regions Two, Six, and 10. A total of 60 youths have thus far been exposed to training.
“These youths had varying types of disabilities,” said Singh who disclosed that the aim of the workshops is to educate the youths with disabilities on their rights as stated in the Guyana Disability Act 2010. The youths were also equipped with skills in advocating for their rights and they also had sessions in planning strategies for the campaign.
The campaign, according to Singh, will span six months. He pointed out that the training workshops represented the initial phase of the advocacy project. A second phase will focus on sensitization of members of the public through various means such as brochures, sensitisation sessions, flyers, radio and television advertisements, the use of awareness paraphernalia such as pens and pencils. The second phase will also include meetings with key stakeholders including government officials.
Singh said that a ‘National Youths with Disabilities’ conference is planned for November 18 in Georgetown.
Although he recognises that the six months will not be nearly enough to create the needed change, Singh said that among the intended goal is to “get changes when it comes to the attitude of people.”
“We can’t do it in six months but our aim is to change the negative culture that exists towards persons with disabilities and also to get policymakers to commit in a more concrete way to the implementation of the various content of the Act,” said Singh.
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