World Disability Day:AHIP Calls For End Of Violence Against Persons With Disabilities

Stakeholders are concerned about the rising cases of violence against Persons Living with Disability (PWDs) in Nigeria and have called for urgent action towards addressing the problem.

The Executive Director of Adolescent Health and Information Project (AHIP) Hajia Mairo Bello Garko stated this while speaking at an event Organised by AHIP and KANAWA Foundation in Collaboration with Sightsavers, expressed concern over what she described as increasing violence against disabled persons.

Hajiya Mairo lamented that despite several sensitization programmes on the need to ensure PWDs are included in decision-making, they are still left behind.

Participants

Also speaking, the Chairman, Kano State Initiative of Persons with Special Needs, Abdulrazaq Ado Zango suggested that to address the challenges faced by PWDs in Kano, the State Government must domesticate the National Disabilities Commission.

Ibraheem Ladi Amosa, AHIP Kano aptly put that disability is the disadvantage and exclusion which arise as an outcome of the interactions between people who have impairments and social and environmental barrier s they face due to failure of society to take account of their rights and needs.

He suggested mainstreaming disability and other crosscutting issues in developmental programms.

Ibrahim also advocated for human rights-based approach in addressing both basic and specific needs of persons with disability and other vulnerable groups.

In a seperate event, the Chairman, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Engr Musa Muhammed Shaga said PWDs still have to battle the challenge of getting jobs, calling on state actors to come up with policies to address the problem.