The Asunafo South District Assembly (ASDA) on Friday disbursed assorted items to 71 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) at Kokooso, in the Ahafo Region.
The items included industrial sewing machines, wheelchairs, deep freezers, fufu pounding machines, bags of charcoal, baking flour, hair dryers and plastic chairs among other materials.
Other beneficiaries also received cash donations to cater for their medical bills, school fees at the tertiary institutions, start-up capital for new businesses and support capital for existing enterprises.
The Asunafo South District Director, Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Ms Lovelace Eyram Kpogo, disclosed that the materials were purchased and distributed to the beneficiaries based on their individual needs.
She noted that the three per cent share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) earmarked for the disability fund was disbursed quarterly as a tool to improve the living standards of PWDs in the area.
The district director entreated parents and guardians in the area to enrol children with disabilities in schools and other employable skills training programmes saying that “register them with the various disability unions.”
Mr Frank Aduse Poku, the District Chief Executive (DCE), in his remarks, reiterated the commitment of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to improve the economic conditions of PWDs in the country.
He said beneficiaries who received cash donations in the last decade mismanaged it without achieving the main objective of the disability fund, thus the need to replace it with valuable items.
“The various materials disbursed to you today is what you have individually requested for. It will go a long way to enhance your economic development. Use them prudently for your own good, the DCE told the beneficiaries,” he said.
Mr Poku cautioned the beneficiaries against the sale of the items and said that it was an offence against the laws of the country stressing that supervisors would monitor your activities.
He implored residents of Ahafo Region to rally behind the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to make Ghana a prosperous country emphasising that 2023 was a promising year.
The Asunafo South District Vice Chairman of PWDs, Mr Gabriel Ansere, on behalf of the beneficiaries, appealed to the government to increase the disability fund to five per cent in order to benefit several others.
FROM EMMANUEL ADU GYAMFI, KOKOOSO
