06 Feb 2017

The 2016 Mandela Washington fellows are banking on community support to attain their aim of increasing inclusion for and preventing abuse against people living with disabilities in rural Botswana programme.

The team leader for Mandela Washington fellows dedicated for the central region, Ms Tshepo Makete on Friday told the representatives of Serowe Administrative Authority that they needed collaboration with the community for their efforts to be positive and sustainable.

Ms Makete outlined that they wanted to bring awareness and create friendly environment for people living with disabilities and make sure that people with disabilities were knowledgeable and could speak against abuse.

“Your hospital is far much better especially with people using wheel chairs. We want similar environment at post office, banks and other hospitals,” she stated.

She said fitting rooms and toilets should be friendly to people with disabilities.

One of the fellows, Ms Chaikhwa Lobatse said some community members did not cooperate with those with disabilities, citing that they were always fighting to occupy the parking space designated for peope with disability.

Another fellow Ms Bonosi Selotlegeng said she had observed that in some cases ramps designed for people with disabilities were not friendly to them.

Ms Selotlegeng also said that in most cases the visually challenged were not cared for. “At US, braille is installed at traffic lights pedestrian crossing to help the blind,” she said.

Health officer, Ms Nonhlanhla Kusane said the community should be trained on sign language to ease communication with those who were relying on it.

She also said there were a lot of people living with disabilities in the villages surrounding Serowe even though there were no schools for people with severe disability in the region.

Another concern was that after being (people with disabilities) inducted in education system there was no market or opportunities for them.

As a starting point, the fellows said they will donate four ramps to central region but will be guided by ramp survey on how to distribute them. ENDS