By William Mbangula
OSHAKATI
People with disabilities staged a peaceful demonstration last Friday, June 8, to demand access to buildings and services in Oshana Region.
They handed a petition to the Councillor of Oshakati East, Lotto Kuushomwa, who stood in for Oshana Regional Governor Clemens Kashuupulwa. The petition was read to the media and government officials by the Chief Occupational Therapist in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Hanna Kambowe.
Sketching the background to the demonstration, Kambowe noted that the occasion was intended to mark the Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation National Awareness Week (June 4 to 8).
This follows a meeting by officials from the Department of Rehabilitation and the Association of People with Disabilities who came together to discuss pressing needs for disabled persons. The meeting concluded that people with disabilities lag behind in terms of development and empowerment because they have difficulty accessing buildings and services.
As a result, a number of groups were formed to visit various offices in order to discuss the problem of inaccessibility. This was done by people with disabilities themselves who later compiled reports with minimal outside assistance, reported Kambowe.
Some of the places visited are not disability-friendly, such as Erundu Combined School where the entrance is said to be completely inaccessible for wheelchair-users. Although the reception and attitudes towards the disabled was good, it was strange for the visitors that, although the school has a teacher who is physically challenged, it has to rely on the children’s assistance to move the teacher around in the wheelchair on the school premises.
Other places that did were not given a clean bill include Oshakati Secondary School, the Office of the Inspector of Education in Oshakati, National Housing Enterprise (NHE), Youth Multipurpose Centre (where the person who first received the visitors was unfriendly but only changed after the intervention of the officer-in-charge), and Oshakati Health Centre. Surprisingly, Oshakati Health Centre under the Ministry of Health and Social Services, which is supposed to know better, did not qualify to be considered friendly to people with disabilities.
With regard to NHE which was visited last month, the report said that although the staff were positive towards the visitors, the building was totally inaccessible. There is an inappropriate ramp; the floor is good for wheelchairs but dangerous for those using crutches because it is too smooth.
Other issues checked were the application forms for housing, which lacked information about people with disabilities.
The visitors feel there is a need to improve on them in order for the housing company to know who of its customers need special attention when it comes to new houses.
The town councils of Ongwediva and Oshakati as well as the Women’s Centre at Ongwediva were commended in the report, not only because their attitudes were friendly, but also their administrative buildings have almost all the necessary facilities for people with disabilities. These are, among others, the entrance which is friendly, toilets for wheelchair-users, the floor is good for wheelchair-users, lifts to take people up, and corridors that are wide enough.
Kambowe said : “We are kindly requesting the office of the Governor to follow up with all the service-providers in our region in relation to the accessibility of their buildings and services they provide in order to allow people with disabilities to benefit just like other citizens in the country.”