16 Jun 2014

“Life can be a constant and continual challenge, with or without mental development or physical disability”, rehabilitation officer for Serowe region, Ms Nonhlanthla Kusane has said.

Ms Kusane said this over the weekend after a Tshidilo rehabilitation centre sponsored walk. The centre raised P61 320 through the event. The money will go towards construction of a classroom for the centre.

Ms Kusana said every child has the right to learn, live with dignity and succeed, regardless of their intellectual or physical disability. She urged the community to help children-living-with disabilities to gain sense of their own worth and value as individuals in the society.

She said many people with disability could not perform to the optimum because the society did not offer them opportunity to do so by accommodating their various needs.

The rehabilitation officer argued that due to ignorance on the part of economic, physical and educational planners, the world for many years regarded people-living-with disabilities as unproductive because of limitations imposed on them by social and environmental barriers.

She said sadly disability was once perceived as an illness, hence society turned to health authorities for solutions.

The officer said as far as 1944 Botswana implemented its first initiative geared towards assisting issues of disability.

At that time disability largely referred lto blindness. The inclusion of the blind-section in the 1946 national census demonstrated government’s intentions at the time.

She said in 1976 government established the rehabilitation division under the Ministry of Health and later in troduced in 1984 the special education division.

She further outlined government’s commitment to help people with disability, such as allocation of funds to people to them, the approval a national policy pertinent to them in 1996 as well as the establishment of a Coordinating Office for People-Living-with Disabilities in subsequent years.

“We must live and analyse the paradox of disability if we work as a consolidated team with full participation of everyone,” Ms Ms Kusane said.

She also implored the society to redouble effort to ensure people with disabilities achieved full access to disease prevention and health promotional services.

Mr Brightfield who lives with Shadi complained about difficulties conditions of living that people-living-with disabilities found themselves having to endure. He said while government was assisting, there was still a long way to go.

Mr Shadi said: “I can only use special font to read or write but the education system does not cater for that.”

He said he tried to apply to a certain school but his efforts were fruitless because the school did not use that special font.

He also said people with disability mostly constituted the unemployed and if they were working they had menial work.

He said the society lacked tolerance them as some people used abusive and deragotory language that hurt them.

The chief walker for the day, Mr Bafana Motseothata who is the chairperson for Serowe Administration Authority, said Tshidilo Rehabilitation centre said, which was started in 1989 had a serious shortage of classrooms.

He pointed out that the government did not provide infrastructure and so the centre had to do the best to come up with buildings and furniture. ENDS