The Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) has appealed to the Ghana Police Service (GPS) to arrest persons with disabilities (PWDs), especially the hearing-impaired who beg for alms on streets and other workplaces.
Their activities, according to the GNAD retards the progress of the association as they use fake papers in the name of the association, to solicit for huge sums of money from companies and individuals.
The President of the GNAD, Mr Matthew Kubachua, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghanaian Times last Tuesday.
Responding to questions posed to him, he indicated that the GNAD had officially written a letter to the Police in Accra, about the ban placed on its members and appealed to the police to go ahead and arrest them.
According to him, the hearing-impaired who were beggars did not use the money in any profitable business but rather use it to drink beer and spend on women.
He revealed that a hearing-impaired male beggar was knocked down by a vehicle after he had used the money he had solicited to drink alcohol, adding that the activities of the beggars could cause accident on the road.
Mr Kubachua stated that the GNAD had supported many hearing-impaired to gain skills in dressmaking, carpentry, kente weaving, hair dressing, driving, shoe making among others which could help them cater for themselves and their families.
He added that the government had also given the PWDs, the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), to start any business of their choice but some of them prefer to beg, an issue which tarnishes the good name of the GNAD.
Mr Kubachua appealed to the public to desist from offering alms to the hearing-impaired beggars in town.
He added that offering them money every day would not solve their problems because those beggars would never use the money given them for the intended purpose.
FROM ALBERTA SARPONG, KOFORIDUA
