The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has appealed to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to support Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in identifying and developing policy issues that could form advocacy documents needed to engage the government.
The Acting Director of CCD, Mr Godwin Unumeri, made the appeal during a two-day capacity building workshop organised for CSOs and public institutions in Abia on Thursday in Umuahia.
Unumeri said that some of the CSOs associated with PWDs were not too familiar with some of the issues about policies and activities concerning disability.
He said that the workshop was meant to build the capacity of CSOs so that they could be able to support PWDs on issues of inclusion in government policies and activities.
He further said that the objective was to sensitise public and private institutions on how to include PWDs in their policies and programmes.
“It is also expected that the participants would be able to have that consciousness, analyse policies and work for issues in the policy to be able to develop very strong advocacy and present themselves very well with authorities,” he said.
A participant in the workshop, Mrs Priscilla Ogbonna, described the training as an “eye opener”, saying that it had widened the knowledge of participants about disability policy.
“The policy has been passed, but there is a gap that we still need to fill as CSOs, especially in the area of implementation because sometimes the PWDs cannot speak for themselves,” said Ogbonna, who is Ithe Co-chair, Open Government Partnership, Non State Actors..
Another participant, Mr Marvelous Ochiegbu, lauded the organisers, saying that the programme was impactful.
Ochiegbu, who is the Director, Behind Bar Human Rights Defenders in Abia, said, “I have learnt a lot that anything you are doing in this state or country you should include people with disabilities.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was organised by CCD, in collaboration with Project Enable Africa and supported by the U.S. – Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund.(NAN)
