◾Holds two-day training in Imo
A nongovernmental organization NGO: Community Life Project, at the weekend, called on various communities in the country to include persons with disabilities, PWDs, in their activities. It said such inclusion will give them a sense of belonging.
In a two-day training which took place on Friday and Saturday, September 26 and 27 respectively at St Michael’s Catholic Parish hall, Umuorii Uratta in Owerri North Local Government Area, the programme manager, Celine Osukwu, explained the reason why they organized the counselling.
“We are pleading with the communities, please do inclusive activities with the physically- challenged. Involve them in the communities because they are part of the communities.
“They are not second-class citizens. They are first-class citizens like any other person in the community. Anything they’re doing in community, they should involve them,” the manager stated.
She informed that the gender-based programme had also been carried out in Nsukka, Enugu, State, for the same reasons of also championing the cause of capacity building and alleviating suffering of the vulnerable populations in communities. And we have been in Owerri North Local Government, including Orji, and Nsukka Local Government Area of Imo and Enugu States respectively to work on gender-based violence.
“Our approach is to tackle the deep causes of violence. So we work with community people, town unions, Ndi inyom, Ndom
the youth, married women and umuada; then the persons with disabilities. So we have been having programmes since 2023 in Enugu and Imo states,. And here in Imo State, with Orji Community initially. We’re now in Obibi Uratta.”
“So here in Obibi Uratta, we work with communities in Umuoba, Umuorii, Umualum, and Okwu,” she said.
The organization also exposed the PWDs to the existing laws to make them understand their rights as citizens of Nigeria and to equip them with information that will help them to protect themselves against gender-based violence against other maltreatment in society.
Osukwu, therefore, urged them to use the laws and rights both at the nation and state levels to protect and advance their rights.
Entitled “A 2-Day training for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Owerri North communities,” with the theme : “Understanding our Rights as PWDs and How to Protect Ourselves from Gender-Based Violence.”
In a chat with one of the facilitators, a person with PWD, Miss Ifeanyi Ukwueze, a Master’s degree holder, said she derives joy from volunteering.
‘I’m a blind lady. I came from Enugu State. I am one of the volunteers with Community Life Project. This is not the only place I have come to talk with persons with disabilities. First of all I’m a counselor by profession. In my Master’s, I did Mental and Emotional Health. I’ve been offering free counselling to individuals, leaving them better than they came to me.”
Miss Ukwueze who said she was proudly single, took her ilk on self-esteem.
Elder Ernest Akujobi, sixty-something year-old man, said he became blind in 2023. Embittered by his condition, he said he wanted to kill himself, but along the line relaxed and accepted the condition after every effort to make him see failed.
He said, “My blindness started in 2023. Just one day like that. I no dey see again! I started wondering.
The sight problem took me to Lagos twice to churches still nothing happened. I came home and I started going to eye clinics here and there and still nothing happened. So I relaxed.”
Others interviewed included Georgenia Ugo who said her take away was, “I suppose not to be ashamed of my condition regardless of what it is.”
Miss Nora Ekwe who was brought to the tutelage by her brother, Uchenna Ekwe, toed this line, “Do not insult nobody with a disability every person is disabled in one way or the other.”
