A total of 26 disabled men and women on Thursday received working tools from the Ablekuma West Municipal Assembly as part of the assembly’s efforts to equip them to lead self-supporting lives.
The beneficiaries who suffered from various forms of disability such as vision impairment, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, physical disability, and autism spectrum disorder were joyful during the presentation of the items which took place at the premises of the assembly in Accra.
Some received commercial ovens and gas cylinders, industrial sewing machines, credit and table and umbrellas, knitting machines, grinding machines, popcorn machines, deep freezers and standing dryers.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Ablekuma West, Mr George Cyril Bray, during the presentation, said the items were presented upon request by the beneficiaries.
He explained that most of the beneficiaries were already into entrepreneurship and wanted such items to enable them expand their businesses.
Mr Bray said the donation was also to encourage them to take their businesses seriously, and as well inspire their colleagues begging on the streets to also venture into entrepreneurship.
He urged them to take good care of the items and not sell them, but use them for the purposes for which they were intended, adding that a monitoring team would be detailed to ascertain how those items would be used.
“The intervention for the persons with disability was in line with the Assembly’s vision to empower these individuals. The Assembly has registered about 140 persons with disability and is looking forward to registering more members,” he said.
Mr Bray said such social intervention programmes sought to improve the socio-economic life of the disabled, and appealed to individuals and corporate organisations to partner the assembly to provide similar support to other disabled.
Madam Justine Wototyenor who received a deep freezer for her provisions business thanked the Assembly for coming to their aid, stressing that such support would help them improve their standard of living.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN
