A victory for the disabled after 13-year struggle

As cars send up clouds of smog and workers bustle their way through one of the main junctions in Ghana’s capital Accra, the blind, crippled and maimed raise their hands for coins. Accra’s main roundabout, or ‘circle’, named after the country’s first president, Kwameh Nkrumah, is choked with commuters. The jam of cars and pedestrians has long made the area a favourite for traders and beggars alike. “If I don’t come and sit here I won’t get food to eat. I won’t get money to buy food that is why I just choose to come and beg,” said 19-year-old Abdallah Mamud, sitting with his withered leg folded under him. He was stricken with polio as a child. Africa’s disabled population are some of the continent’s most marginalised and poorest inhabitants. Unable to work or denied an education because of their disabilities, many turn to begging to survive. But in Ghana, helping the disabled has finally hit the government agenda. A disability bill drafted 13 years ago but signed into law in June, provides for the protection of the disabled against discrimination, guarantees free medical care, free public transportation and access to basic education. It also makes special access ramps and rails mandatory for all public places. The new law is a giant step forward in Ghana, where physical disability is often seen as a punishment for one’s sins or the sins of ancestors. It was because of such beliefs that Mamud was ostracised by his family and forced onto the streets to beg, he says. Under the new law special desks are to be established at various employment centres nationwide for the registration of unemployed disabled persons. It will be the government’s duty to ensure that the registered persons get equal access jobs in their districts through the district assemblies. A national council for the disabled would oversee the registration of all unemployed disabled persons. But Mamud and the scores of other disabled beggars at Kwame Nkrumah circle may have to wait a while before they reap the benefits of this new law. The new legislation will only be applied over a transitional period of 10 years due to the large expenditures expected. “It recognises that the passage of the bill and the right that it will confer will impose some cost obligations on government to, for instance, provide access to public buildings where access does not exist,” said Professor Gyimah Boadi, executive director of the Centre for Democratic Development, a government think-tank based Accra. Boadi was struck with polio as a child but was able to overcome his disability because, he says, he was lucky enough to come from a wealthy family and was sent to school regardless of his handicap. But he says he found it difficult going through school because of stigmatisation. “The difficulty was how to get to be accepted among my mates in school and that was one challenge I had to deal with till I got out of the university and got this job,” he said. Boadi worked on the National Disability Bill three years ago. He questioned why little attention is paid to the plight of the disabled in the distribution of national resources even though they are among the most deprived in society. The government spokesperson on social issues, Kofi Amponsah Bediako, said governments over the years have lacked a clear policy that identifies the needs of the disabled. “That is why we have not been able to effectively tap into the potentials of the disabled for national development - they are always left out of the planning process,” he said. Nicholas Halm of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled says greater awareness of the new bill will help end discrimination. He said that after he went blind at the age of seven his singular desire to get education saw him through school. “I struggled to trade in groceries on the streets of Accra to fund my education,” he said. The disabled federation was established in 1987 to serve as a pressure group to promote the rights of persons with disabilities to participate fully and equally in community activities. A chalk factory that employs some 50 disabled persons is located on the premises of the federation. Halm said he is particularly happy that the bill will help get disabled Ghanaians off the streets and into the classroom or other vocational centres to acquire skills that will give them a more fulfilling life. “If it is a matter of access, that means making the place accessible, or if it is transportation or a peculiar need to assist the parent to get the kids off the street, the act will make all these clear,” said Halm. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy has said that people with disabilities are among the poorest and most vulnerable in Ghana. With little education many turn to a life on the streets because they see no other option, the document said. But, Mamud, who earns about US $2 a day begging at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, has not given up hope. “I want to be a lawyer. I don’t want suffering,” he said. “Now the sun beats me and I can fall sick. But if I sit at an office nothing will be able to happen to me.” em/cs/ss