Work for people with disabilities

Dec 04, 2025 Editorial, News

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(Kaieteur News) –Wednesday’s observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities came with a familiar reminder from the United Nations: the world cannot speak seriously about social progress while leaving millions of persons with disabilities (PWDs) on the margins.

This year’s theme, “Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress,” challenges governments, businesses, and communities to confront the structural barriers that still confine too many PWDs to poverty, limited opportunity, and invisibility. Across regions, rich and poor alike the UN notes that households with persons with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty.

They face discrimination in employment, earn lower wages, and remain heavily concentrated in the informal sector. Social protection systems, where they exist, remain patchy and often inaccessible. And in the most troubling cases, the very services designed to “care” for persons with disabilities instead strip them of autonomy and dignity.

The UN is clear: the three pillars of social development: poverty eradication, decent and productive work for all, and social integration cannot be achieved unless persons with disabilities are included as full participants in society. Disability inclusion is not an act of charity. It is an economic, moral, and developmental necessity. Countries cannot call themselves just or progressive while entire communities remain shut out from education, employment, services, and public life.

Here in Guyana, Tuesday offered a rare and welcome example of what genuine inclusion looks like. At Palmyra, Region Six, First Lady Arya Ali announced a landmark partnership between the Centre for Equity, Opportunity and Innovation and several major utility and service providers. GPL, GWI, ENet, One Communications, MMG, MoneyGram, and Western Union have begun establishing service kiosks at the Centre, set to begin operations by January 2026. More significantly, each of these companies has committed to hiring at least one person with a disability to run its kiosk, a direct and practical step toward meaningful employment. Ninety persons already work at the Centre, and the addition of these positions marks not just job creation but recognition that persons with disabilities are fully capable, trainable, and deserving of equitable access to work. This is no small achievement. For years, the First Lady’s InclusAbility Initiative has urged the private sector to move beyond sympathetic statements and instead open doors, real doors to training, jobs, and upward mobility.

Tuesday’s announcement suggests that parts of corporate Guyana are finally listening. As Mrs. Ali put it, “This partnership shows what is possible when we work together for the good of all our people.” Her words were echoed by senior members of government. Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh called the partnership a model of the “meaningful change” that emerges when the state, businesses, and civil society function as true partners. It is, he said, an embodiment of President Ali’s One Guyana philosophy not as slogan, but as lived policy. President Ali himself Tuesday night announced that his government will incorporate some 5,000 persons with disabilities into the local workforce. “We want 5,000 with disabilities to be incorporated into the workforce, and we are going to make it happen,” President Ali told a gathering of tour operators.

For the disability community, represented by Chairman of the National Commission on Disability, Ganesh Singh, the First Lady’s initiative is a “progressive step” that not only brings services closer to the people but does so in a way that affirms accessibility, independence, and dignity. But readers should not lose sight of the bigger picture. While these developments are commendable, they are only the beginning of what must become a national movement. An inclusive society is not built through ceremonies or announcements alone. It requires employers across Guyana, large and small to rethink outdated assumptions about ability, productivity, and workplace design. It requires accessible public spaces, inclusive education, strong enforcement of disability legislation, and social protections that reflect the real costs of living with a disability. Persons with disabilities do not need pity. They need opportunity. They need the tools to enjoy better lives, meaningful work, and full participation in society.

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• disabilities, Ganesh Singh, United Nations, work

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