SEEKING to better serve and support persons living with disabilities in Guyana, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, on Tuesday, unveiled its core principles, which it hopes to introduce across institutions in the country.

This was unveiled during the “Unleash-ability” Summit, which was held in collaboration with various stakeholders, at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre.

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud, delivering feature remarks noted that the summit brought to the forefront the importance of not only acknowledging persons living with disabilities, but also celebrating their strengths and accomplishments, while listening to them to be able to draft inclusive policies and programmes.

“This is the first of its kind, a conference bringing adults and children living with disabilities together in the same room with key stakeholders… our local partners, our international partners, and also our agencies of government and the private sector, to understand how we can achieve what it is we’re setting on to do, which is to have you not only buy into it, but commit to the core principles of engaging with persons living with disabilities,” she said.

Against this backdrop, Dr Persaud told those gathered that the summit is of importance as when they sign the core principles of how to engage persons with disabilities, they will understand why it is imperative that every member of their agency must be trained to be able to engage professionally, ethically and compassionately with persons living with disabilities.
She added that as they listen to the work of the government across agencies, they would see that there has been a sharp focus on ensuring that persons not only dream of a quality of life but have that quality of life.

“We will continue to work with all our partners to listen to their recommendations and their ideas on policy, so that as a government we continue to have a kind of transformational impact for that community,” Dr Persaud said.

Among some of the core principles for engaging people, including children with disabilities, is, ensuring services are delivered respectfully, safeguarding individual privacy and protecting personal information.

One aspect outlines that high standards of personal and professional conduct must be maintained while reporting incidents that involve a breach of conduct.
Further, the Government of Guyana acknowledges and respects the evolving capacities of persons, including children, with disabilities, recognising their right to self-determination.
Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, during brief remarks, told the summit that his ministry has been working with persons across different regions and has conducted a survey on persons living with disabilities.

There are over 24,000 persons across Guyana living with various disabilities, including learning disabilities.
As such, the ministry, he said, has tailored programmes with various stakeholders to provide support for those persons, be it the provision of prostheses and assistive devices, among other things.

With this, he said that the summit serves as a forum to identify and address gaps that exist in this regard.