03 Apr 2022

Being disabled does not make one a charity case, Director of Phoenix Botswana, Mr Carlson Chiswo has said.

Mr Chiswo said this during an event to commemorate World Autism day hosted by Autism Botswana in collaboration with FNB Foundation, Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) and Botswana Council for the Disabled in Ranaka on Saturday.

He said the disabled were not objects but people with emotions like everybody else.

He said the event, which  was held under the theme: Inclusion in the Workplace, Challenges and Opportunities in a Post Pandemic World, highlighted the hurdles faced by people living with disabilities as well as their caregivers.

Mr Chiswo decried lack of access to adaptive equipment such as motorised wheel chairs.

Where equipment was found, he said, it came at a hefty price.

He underscored the need for motorised wheel chairs. 

“We do not need to be pushed around, it affects us psychologically,” he said.

He urged the relevant authorities to look into the issue of lack of equipment and make access much easier.

Mr Chiswo said there was a challenge of lack of facilities that could detect if the baby would be born disabled or not, noting that where available, such facilities were expensive.

The other challenge, he said was accessibility of some offices, which limited people with disability in many ways.

He pleaded with the community to learn to live with people with disability.

“They have to be treated with care and love, let us celebrate them than to pity them,” he added.

FNBB Foundation Manager, Ms Onkemetse Montsheki said the bank’s mandate was to improve community’s lives hence their support to Autism Botswana.

“For the disabled, we try by all means to make sure that we assist so that they are not left behind,” she said.

We would like to see the disabled people included in all daily activities.

 “In most of the cases, they are left behind and that have to be addressed,” she said.

FNB Foundation, she said had therefore made it a policy to sponsor organisations that catered for people with disability in their activities or plans.

“In whatever we do as the nation, let us take into consideration the disabled,” she added.

For his part, BALA executive secretary, Mr Steve Mylon Pheko said their affiliates’ mandate was to bring services to the communities, which was why the association found it vital to assist Autism Botswana in achieving the goal of improving the lives of people with disabilities.

He said all people were created in the image of God, each given certain abilities.

“A lot of people have similar abilities, but for disabled theirs are different,” he said. Mr Pheko urged guardians of the people with disabilities  not to hide them, but let them express themselves.

“When we discriminate against the disabled, we are denying ourselves the value they could bring to our lives,” he said.

Autism Botswana Chairperson, Ms Kutlwano Seeletso explained that autism was not a disease but a condition.

“We are therefore there to teach people about disabilities, so that they could understand how to live with them,” she said.

The disabled, she said could achieve what other people could, even though they do that in a certain way.

“They have their own way of doing things but getting the same results as others not disabled,” she said.

She said there was urgent need to find ways to include people with disability in the work environment.

“We have to learn more about them and include them in all our daily activities, they are capable,” she said. ENDS