Issues facing people living with disabilities should be incorporated into the ministries that deal with education, labour, health and social services, says a disability and rehabilitation specialist.
Chapal Khasnabis, Technical Officer for Disability and Rehabilitation at the Word Health Organization (WHO), said the disabled were “the poorest of the poor” and should be “the first to get the benefits of the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] and all issues of main streaming of persons living with disabilities should be incorporated in four main ministries that that deal with education, labour, health and social services”.
Khasnabis said globally 50% of people living with disabilities were in the poverty bracket and that only a few countries such as China have managed to people with disabilities out of this 50 per cent bracket.
Khasnabis made the comments during an ongoing Community Based Rehabilitation workshop at Protea Hotel, Zambia today (15 November 2011)
He added: “Community Based Rehabilitation should not be only linked to rehabilitation. CBR has four pillars but the key component is the foundation which is empowerment out of the four pillars of health, education, livelihood and social services.”
Answering a question from Frank Musukwa, executive director of Zambia Deaf Youth and Women as to why the MDGs did not highlight the plight of people with disabilities, Khasnabis said more lobbying of the governments was needed to enable the second MDG to take people with disabilities into consideration.
He said: “In the last few years we missed the bus, so we want to include the plight of the disabled in the second MDGs. However, you need advocacy [so] your government can see the need for action. Prove that you are the poorest of the poor and need to be heard.”
Today’s workshop was organized by the Norwegian Association of Disabilities with the assistance of the Norwegian Disability Consortium.
