The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has urged Persons With Disabilities(PWDs) to try and study policies that had been designed for their inclusion in the society.
The Acting Director, CCD, Mr Godwin Unumeri gave the advice on Wednesday in Umuahia during a workshop for PWDs in Abia.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was intended to promote inclusive economic opportunities and community resilience for PWDs.
Participants were drawn from different clusters in the disability community, including the physically challenged, albinism, visually impaired, hearing impaired, spinal cord injury and others.
Unumeri said that most members of the disability community did not know anything about the national and state policies of the PWDs.
“So if you don’t know anything about the policy and it is being implemented, how do you know the gaps in the implementation?” he queried.
Unumeri charged them to update their awareness around policies developed for them so that they could identify and draw out advocacy issues for effective implementation of those polices.
He said the objective of the workshop was to see how PWDs could be included in various aspects of life, particularly in forming partnerships.
According to him, if they can pool their expertise, it will increase their resources and chances of having access to funding.
Participants were sensitised on partnership and collaboration for PWDs inclusion, public policy analysis and collaboration, and inclusive workplaces.
A participant, Blessing Ononogbu expressed gratitude to the organisers of the programme, saying that she learnt a lot.
She enjoined other organisations to emulate CCD and its collaborators, by organising empowerment programmes for PWDs.
The advocacy training was organised in collaboration with Project Enable Africa with support from the US – Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund.(NAN)
