LAST Thursday, a new vista in governance by the coalition government, A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) was opened when its Ministry of Community’s Department of Housing, in conjunction with the Central Housing & Planning Authority (CH&PA), extended its services to People with Disabilities (PWD).

At a packed Guyana Society for the Blind hall, a reported 150 persons with disabilities had their dreams fulfilled when Minister responsible for Housing, Valerie Adams-Yearwood along with a team of officials had the gathering complete the necessary documentation that will enable processing for their acquisition of lots for house construction. It was the first time in the national housing programme’s history that this category of Guyanese had been given this very special attention.

Of all of life’s material requirements for sustenance and comfortable living, home ownership ranks as the most coveted. It means, in common language, having a roof over one’s head, a situation that engenders a feeling of achievement, particularly of one’s culmination of hard work and sacrifice. And this can be seen as a crowning moment, not only as a life security for oneself, but also for family, as is the case with almost every applicant. But home ownership is also about adding vital value to one’s material stock that can be multiplied for those who will succeed as heirs and beneficiaries. It also makes for better objective planning for the future, again, when there is a family.

Since 2015, it has been the clear policy of the APNU+AFC coalition government to make housing a priority on its national programme of socio-economic development, in which housing must be acquired at reasonable cost. This initiative also ensures that those who would have applied since in the 1990s and were never responded to be given alternatives to acquire a home of their own. This new initiative, in progress since 2015, has already resulted in hundreds acquiring not only the new duplex and ‘condo’ types of homes, but also others being given lots for constructing their specific type of dream home. This means that thei long wait and neglect suffered during the former PPP/C administration has ended.

In a society in which it has always been traditional to forget the disabled, or perceive them as not having the same needs for life’s comforts/security as their better physically-abled counterparts, last week’s initiative by the minister and her team can be said to have dispelled such a negative trend that has existed for so long. And one can well understand this enlightened approach and important human right being taken by the current

government, given its commitment to providing the Good Life for all Guyanese. In fact, Minister Adams– Yearwood, who had been a member of the Society for the Blind, in addition to being a Committee Chairperson for welfare matters on the Region Ten Democratic Council, in addressing this very special gathering at the Society for the Blind, reminded them, “I have been associated with many organisations and many people who I consider disadvantaged because, for some reason or the other, you’re never placed on the front burner of any activities. Sometimes it appears as though you’re forgotten people, so today you are the front burner.”

Such a statement amplifies government’s understanding that every citizen, or category of citizen, regardless of physical condition/status, has the right to access social amenities for better and improved living standards, as every other. Further, as in the example illustrated above, that it is its social duty as a government to make such assistance possible for realisation of the desired amenity, especially where such a special category of citizens exists.

This can be extended to also include the immediate relief that the coalition has also commenced for those persons, many of whom said that they had applied for lots years ago, but have been left homeless as a result of the recent fire in Broad Street, Charlestown. In a combined relief effort with Food for the Poor, a multi-million dollar building programme will facilitate the housing of at least 20 families by June. For both groups of citizens, though of differing circumstances but having the same important need of housing, government’s intervention is as timely as it is critical and necessary, in making their goal of a home a very special realisation. Of course, they all have the right to a good life.