Julia Kamarenga
The Omahake Regional Council has promised to set up a special fund that will address the needs of people with disabilities.
This was said recently by regional council chairperson Ignatius Kariseb.
The decision for a special fund came about after the realisation of the basic needs encountered by people with disabilities, such as water, toilets and backyard gardens.
“The special fund can start now; we have all these value added tax monies that are coming in – we have all these incoming generating projects that are coming in, and if we can, for example, allocate a specific percentage of that as a standing resolution in council, then we will be able to start attending to some basic urgent needs,” he said. Kariseb further said some of the needs such as potable water and toilets are too basic, and need to be attended to with utmost urgency.
Omaheke governor Pijoo Nganate also recently pointed out that in the past, planning hardly considered the people with disabilities.
The governor further urged those caring for people with disabilities not to hide them.
Another issue that kept resurfacing in all constituencies is the lack of appropriate resource schools in the region that could cater to people with disabilities. Many carers complained they find it challenging to move to cities to enrol their children in resource schools. They are also argued some children require extra care and cannot be left in the hands of guardians.
On that, Omaheke education director Pecka Semba said, so far, there are only two regions in the entire country that have resource schools.
He admitted the two schools cannot cope with the number of all children with disabilities.
Semba further said, although the establishment of resource schools is a costly exercise, because they have to be designed according to the various disabilities and equip them with specialised teachers, his ministry is still envisaging building such schools in all regions.