PHOTO: Beneficiaries at the ceremony near Monrovia
By Alfred Kollie, alfredkolliejr92@gmail.com
Over thirty persons living with disabilities have benefited from cash at the end of an annual empowerment program under the title, Destined Kids Assistance Program or DEKAP Disabled Women/Girls Village Saving and Loan Association.
The Disabled Women and Girls Village Saving and Loan Association is a DEKAP economic empowerment initiative that was established to remedy the appalling situation faced by women and girls with disabilities in Liberia.
In 2019 over thirty disabled women, who were mere street beggars, were first trained and given empowerment funds to start local businesses by UN Women in collaboration with the Destined Kids Assistance Program to become self-reliant and economically independent.
Since its establishment in 2019, their businesses continue to grow in various communities that witness the disbursement of over eight hundred thirty thousand Liberian dollars in Paynesville. The current exchange rate in Monrovia is 140 Liberian dollars to one US dollar.
Speaking recently in the Paynesville suburb of Monroviay during the annual empowerment program, the organization’s Executive Director, Madam Helena Wenneh expressed joy and happiness about the form and manner in which persons with disabilities impacting their life and family.
Madam Wenneh stressed the need for the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities across the country.
According to her, empowering persons with disabilities through business and other initiatives will make them self-dependent, better and productive citizens in the society.
She believed that persons with disabilities, especially women and girls, are the most abused and abandoned.
Madam Wenneh also noted that now is the time for the government, local and International Organizations and Individuals to turn their attention to People living with disabilities by making it their top priority.
In remarks, UN Women Program Manager, Ramon Zarway thanked the disabled women for such an initiative by identifying their true value, despite their condition or status in society.
Mr. Zarway urged them to push for greater opportunity and not to allow their condition limit them.
The UN Women Program Manager explained that as part of the UN Women or UN initiative, everyone has the rights to survival and empowerment as such; no one should be left out or discriminated against in any activities.
For his part, the National Coordinator of a civil society Organization, He for She Crusaders of Liberia Tamba Johnson challenged the Liberian government to focus on the issue of women rights, especially persons with disability in the Country.
According to him, focusing on the rights of women most especially the inclusion of person with disabilities in all of its undertaking will help address the issue of sexual and gender based violence against women and girls, noting that they too have the rights of participation, education, housing and other social services that every Liberian deserved as a citizen.
Mr. Johnson asserted that if sexual and exportation and abuse will be addressed in the lives of persons with disabilities, there is a need to prioritize their wellbeing, provide increment for persons with disabilities in the national budget, as well as create other opportunities for their wellbeing.
The National Coordinator of He for She Crusaders of Liberia however, used the occasion to call on President George Manneh Weah to prioritize the rights of all women and not women segregation, in order to fight against gender based violence in Liberia.