06 Jul 2016

Government has set itself goals towards achieving prosperity for all, the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has said.

Officially opening a five day Information and Education Exposition organised by Botswana Society for the Deaf in Good Hope on Tuesday, Mr Makgalemele said everyone needed to be brought on board as the country grew to ensure that all participated and played a role in building a united and prosperous Botswana.

Mr Makgalemele applauded the Society for convening the workshop with the aim of developing and empowering their members through education and information dissemination.

“Through information and access to various knowledge, only then can our people be able to fully engage with our various policies,” he said.

He said government was committed to the mainstreaming of people living with disabilities and their empowerment.

He noted that such efforts had spawned numerous interventions which continued to be reviewed “to better serve this historically marginalised group.”

The minister thus said it was evident by the fact that today, people with disabilities had a coordinating office housed at the Office of the President ensuring that these people accessed various government empowerment programmes.

With the advent of a robust disability policy, Mr Makgalemele said, people with disability, including the deaf community need not feel side lined from full engagement in the developments that took place in the country.

He called for availing of the necessary information, services and skills requisite for the participation by people living with disability.

As the country celebrated its 50^th anniversary, the assistant minister said the celebrations should resonate with a sense of achieving for all without anybody feeling left behind.

As the country strove to be a united and proud nation, he said it was important to ensure the active involvement of the deaf people in the society.

“It is the responsibility of each and everyone to make sure that the deaf community is removed from back seat and sidelines,” he said.

For her part, Botswana Society for the Deaf Ms Orapeleng Mokgosi said it was still a big challenge for the deaf community to access information equally as compared to the rest of the community in the country.

Ms Mokgosi said the deaf still suffered a lot as a result of their language which was not known by the public, adding that service providers were also challenged as they couldnot extend their services to the deaf community due to lack of knowledge of the language.

She said lack of information by the deaf community deprived them many opportunities.

She said organising such a workshop also came as one way of sensitising the public and service providers about the deaf and their needs as well as teaching the deaf about different services provided in the country.

“Most of the deaf are not able to make their own informed decisions due to lack of knowledge,” she said.

The exposition was held with the aim to sensitise service providers about the existence of the deaf community, the needs and their culture as well as promoting their language. It was also held to challenge service providers to identify gaps within their service provision and come up with some means of finding ways to cater for the deaf community as well as to promote integration and inclusiveness of the deaf among the society.

Different department and service providers exhibited their products and services as well as made presentations to teach the deaf community about different government programmes and products provided. ENDS