–members of differently-abled community
ACCESS to public buildings, adequate financial resources, and employment for the differently-abled were issues atop the agenda when Young Voices Guyana in collaboration with the Canadian High Commission hosted a training workshop for members of the differently-abled community on Saturday.
The two-day training workshop, organised through the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives, is being coordinated by differently-abled rights Advocate Ganesh Singh and aims to teach differently-abled persons their rights according to Guyana’s laws.
The focus is also to teach this segment of the population how to be able to advocate for such rights as stated in the Guyana Disability Act 2010, Singh told the Guyana Chronicle at the Resource Unit for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Alberttown, Georgetown, where the workshop is being held.
Similar workshops were held in Regions Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) and 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice).
Advocacy group, Young Voices Guyana will soon carry out a series of sensitisation programmes at various institutions across the country.
The group is calling for the public’s support as it continues to educate the non-disabled community on the rights of differently-abled persons.
Singh expressed disappointment in the country’s policy-makers whom he said have failed differently-abled persons by not fulfilling their rights as stated in the Act.
Access to public buildings, he noted, is still a major problem as the country’s building code has not yet been updated. Hence, new buildings are being erected without any accessibility.
Singh said the team hopes to take their concerns to policy-makers when they meet with them in future.
At a ceremony to mark the month designated for Spinal Cord Injuries last September, Physiotherapist Neil Barry, who is attached to the West Demerara Hospital, told the Guyana Chronicle that government should look into providing more accessibility for the differently-abled community.
“Fifteen per cent of the world’s population develops disability, and some governments complain that it’s too expensive to make places accessible; but what the research shows is that places that are more accessible to those in wheelchairs earn more than those that are not,” Barry said, adding that “The disability market alone in the world earns more than a billion dollars yearly.”
Suzana Da Silva, 29, who was the one who informed the Ministry of Public Health that there’s actually a month designated for spinal cord injuries, spoke about the challenges that come with her disability as a result of limited accessibility available in Guyana for those in wheelchairs.
Da Silva experienced major life changes when she was shot during a robbery back in 2014 that resulted in damage to her spinal cord and a life of being in a wheelchair permanently.
“Accessibility in Guyana is a big problem because I think we have this mentality that if someone is in a wheelchair, then they should stay home. Sometimes I want to go out with my family, but I have to choose because the place may not be accessible to me. I can’t go into the movie theatre at that big mall because I would be too close to the screen,” she said.
Senior Physiotherapist Barbara Lawrence at the Public Health Ministry said Guyana’s building code should be modified to include certain requirements that cater more to the needs of these individuals.
