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Sep 06, 2020 Features / Columnists, News
Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities…
Rehanna Ramsay
For over a decade the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) has presented a united front to tackling the challenges and issues facing over 49,000 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).
Under the stewardship of its chairman, Cecil Morris; programmes coordinator, Ganesh Singh, and seven other committee members, the GCOPD has become a leading advocacy body on issues affecting persons with special needs including the implementation of polices that cater to their academic and employment needs.
Speaking to Kaieteur News recently on the progress GCOPD has made towards achieving its goals, Singh explained, the work can become hectic but it is all in the effort of reaching their goals. In his capacity as programmes coordinator, Singh is tasked with overseeing a number of projects aimed at helping to improve the lives of people with special needs for the organization.
“As progamme coordinator, I am charged with managing the day to day activities of GCOPD; sometimes we have two to three programmes running at once, so it’s kind of hectic. I still get the job done because it is about offering support to help to better the lives of our members,” he stated.
He explained that GCOPD was formed on the notion that having a collective voice on issues affecting people living with disabilities, would make individual organizations more effective in their cause.
“So, for instance we had an organization representing people who are visually impaired or another for people with difficulty hearing; each representing its individual interest but none as effective as they would like to be. However, GCOPD provided a platform for all these organisations to join forces to represent and support one core group that is —persons with disabilities,” he said.
Through the efforts of the Council, the programmes coordinator explained that there have been a number projects aimed at addressing the concerns of those with special needs.
Among them, he noted, is the GCOPD Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) robotics project for children with special needs. The programme is slated to operate out of four of 12 Special Education schools and the skills training programme with the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
The GCOPD official said however that like most places due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, the programmes were placed on hold.
At the interim, he said the Council has been providing support for its members with the assistance of private organizations and individuals.
“As you know, the COVID- 19 pandemic has presented the world with some unprecedented challenges, persons living with disabilities are amongst the vulnerable group of people who are encountering great difficulty in their survival as a consequence of the pandemic,” Singh said.
But according to him, ‘Organizations like the Chinese embassy made a donation of food hampers and care packages to the Guyana Council of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) to help families with disabled members combat COVID-19.”
Singh said too that while the GCOPD has benefitted significantly from partnering with private organizations and individuals, the Council is looking to strengthen its ties with public sector entities so as to benefit from programmes funded by the Government and its stakeholders.
“The Council of Organisations met last December where we consulted on developing a manifesto to present to the various political parties contesting the elections,” he revealed.
The manifesto, he said, represented key areas that whichever government came to power can address the concerns for persons with disabilities.
“These were presented to various parties and we received responses from some of the parties at the time, including the People Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) which is now in Government.”
According to Singh, the GCOPD saw it as important to develop a relationship with the ruling party since a number of its objectives touches and concerns implementation of policies and schemes from a public perspective.
He noted that over the years, through the support of private sector, which was and is still needed, little progress was made to holistically address the concerns of people with special needs.
“We have seen some improvement in terms of having more access to education with the opening of more schools for special needs children and some public buildings implementing ramps and open spaces for wheelchair users but that’s about it and we need the help of the government to do more.
As such, Singh has been meeting with representative from the various Ministries to help open the discussion some of its goals and how best it can
be implemented.
“The GCOPD looks forward to working with the new government. We are optimistic that we will have a productive relationship with the government to ensure that the rights of persons as stated in the Guyana Persons with Disabilities Act are fulfilled.”
The programme coordinator also pointed to the manifesto for implementation to fulfill the rights of persons with disabilities. The manifesto lists several keys areas in which the GCOPD seeks the implementation of polices. These areas include: education, employment, accessibility, financial relief and independence as well as accommodation and housing.
With regards to education, the GCOPD wants Ministry of Education to implement an updated and relevant Special Education Needs (SEN) policy by the end of 2020.
The policy should be guided by the Guyana Persons With Disabilities PWD Act 2010 to ensure that children with disabilities have an equal opportunity to acquire a meaningful education in each of the 10 administrative regions; adequate number of resource units and SEN schools across Guyana to accommodate children with disabilities; and the full utilization of technology in evidence-based pedagogical practices.
The Council is also looking for the government to provide full scholarships to all PWDs who are desirous of pursuing tertiary level education at any paid institutions.
Regarding employment, the GCOPD recommends that the government develops and implements a policy that will afford at least five percent of all public sector jobs to qualified and skilled PWDs within all government ministries, agencies and other government organisations with a staff of over 20 persons.
The Council in the document too, stressed the need for financial relief and Financial Independence. The GCOPD noted that the government should develop a programme to disburse a monthly disability grant equivalent to the minimum wage to eligible PWDs.
“This will replace the public assistance grant, currently given to a small percentage of PWDs. This current system is problematic in that it is guided by the Poor Relief Act and has criteria for selection that is not disability specific,” the document outlines.
Further in its manifesto, the organisation noted that the appropriate government agencies should develop and implement a policy that will ensure that PWDs have access to small grants and loans to establish small businesses and to allocate small government contracts to companies owned and operated by PWDs.
The document outlined that “the government, through the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) should remove individual income and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes from PWDs earning below $1,800,000 per year; the government should also provide an adequate yearly subvention to legally registered Disable People Organisations (DPOs) to support their administration and programme implementation.”
As it relates to accessibility, the document recommends that the government, through its respective agencies modify and enforce stringent building codes in compliance with international standards and the Guyana PWD Act 2010 to ensure that all buildings that are open to the public have full accessibility to PWDs regardless of disability type.
“The government should ensure that materials published and broadcast for public consumption must be accessible to all categories of PWDs,” the manifesto added.
In terms of accommodation and housing, the GCOPD wants the government to ensure that adequate measures are in place to provide alternative housing to PWDs who have no place of residence in compliance with the Guyana PWD Act 2010.
The organization believes that the government, through the Ministry of Housing and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), should make available house lots at no cost to PWDs with an income of less than $100,000 per month and to prioritise the housing applications of PWDs above the $100,000 income bracket.
Additionally, the Council is advocating for grants and other housing subsidies to be provided to PWDs to assist in the construction of their houses.
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