12 May 2019

The founder of Artists Making a Difference Trust (AMAD), Ms Roschini Motswakgonnye has appealed to Batswana to take notice of the rights of people living with disabilities.

Speaking with BOPA about the charity organisation’s project, which seeks to evaluate the social packages afforded to people living with disabilities, Ms Motswakgonnye said disabled people continued to suffer despite government’s efforts to give them dignity.

She said through evaluation of information from social workers, particularly in the South East villages of Mogojogojo and Lerwana, they had discovered that caregivers perpetually swindled hampers or money meant for people with disabilities for their own benefit which made the intended beneficiaries suffer.

She said in some cases, disabled people lacked the resources and assistance they needed in order to survive though still under the social programmes.

“The lack of reportage about such cases mean that people with disabilities continue to live in abject poverty,” she said.

Ms Motswakgonnye further said it was in realisation of that fact that they initiated the project in order to advice government to re-evaluate its processes.

She said they worked closely with village extension teams such as social workers, the Village Development Committees, Bogosi and others to find and report such cases.

She expressed the hope that they would soon be able to make recommendations about some of their processes to the office of the president.

The vice president of AMAD, Mr Aobakwe Seloto added that in undertaking the project, they faced challenges particularly with caregivers who felt intimidated by them.  

He said this made their work hard as they were not able to capture the information needed to help people with disabilities, which rendered the situation unsolvable and thus exposesd beneficiaries to exploitation and prolonged suffering.

“We have come across situations where a disabled person was sexually exploited and often had to take care of themselves and children born from rape, and no one comes forward to report such cases, a situation which could be worsened by the victims not being able to speak out for themselves,” he said.

Mr Seloto further cautioned that swindling money or hampers from people living with disabilities was a form of corruption that should be reported to the relevant authorities as it diminished the social programmes that the government had set up to benefit people who cannot take adequate care of themselves.

He added that people should work together to safeguard the rights of people people living with disabilities. ENDS