International day of disabled persons observed

The office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan on Monday said that approximately 4 percent of the Afghan population or some 800,000 people were disabled, “mainly due to war, landmines, polio and poor basic health care in the country.” The statement came in a press release issued to mark International Day of Disabled Persons, which was observed in Peshawar, in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Friday by the Comprehensive Disabled Afghans Programme (CDAP), together with the Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines. CDAP provided rehabilitation services to some 20,000 disabled people in Afghanistan and, while several NGOs and the International Committee Red Cross (ICRC) were also providing assistance, the humanitarian challenges involved in assisting the disabled remained enormous, the statement said. Each year, inadequate referral services meant that many minor disabilities that could be easily treated became complicated and irreversible. Many disabled people become a socio-economic burden on their families and society because of the lack of employment opportunities, the statement added.