NGOs To Push For Law On Employment Of Persons With Disabilities
The world will be celebrating another workers’ day (May Day) in the next two days (May 1, 2022), but in Ghana, only small a handful of persons with disabilities (PWDs) are going to be part of that celebration, owing to a high rate of unemployment of PWDs in the country.
Advocacy over the years educating employers, including governments on the capabilities of persons with disabilities and the need to employ them has yielded no significant result.
The disability community has attributed the situation largely to the absence of a legislation that compels employers to engage the services of a specific number of persons with disabilities.
Disability Advocacy organisation, Extra Helping Hand Foundation (EHHF) and Centre for Employment of Persons with Disabilities (CEPD) have, therefore, embarked on a campaign to increase the representation of persons with disabilities on the labour market.
To achieve that goal, they would first be spearheading some reforms and putting structures in place, including pushing for a law that would compel both state and private companies to reserve some percentage employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
They would also be collaborating with the Ghana Statistical Service and other relevant institutions to collect data on unemployed persons with disabilities in the country, as the lack of such data makes it difficult for advocates to prove their case.
EHHF and CEPD would also be building the capacity of PWDs by organising trainings for them to ensure that they have the requisite skills and qualifications to get onto the labour market. One of such trainings would take place on June 23, 2022.
On Thursday, April 28, 2022, the two organisations started the campaign with a stakeholders workshop in Accra.
Representatives of organisations of persons with disabilities, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations discussed the employment challenges of PWDs and the way forward.
The Executive Director of Centre for Employment of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Alexander Tetteh who made a presentation on the real issues and the campaign plan, was optimistic that they would be making significant impact before the next May Day.
In an interview with DisabilityNewsGH, the Executive Director of Extra Helping Hand Foundation, Mr. Tekyi Anaman called for the involvement of persons with disabilities in making decisions that affect them.
He explained that, there was no way non-persons with disabilities would know the challenges facing PWDs and how to solve them better than the people with the conditions.
Mr. Tekyi Anaman noted that, the practice of taking decisions for persons with disabilities had resulted in the formulation of policies and programmes that did not improve the lot of PWDs in the country.
