Accra, Feb. 06 GNA - Lack of funding to support the Accra Rehabilitation Centre, which trains persons with disabilities has compelled it to charge fees from the trainees instead training them at no cost.

Trainees pay 10 Ghana cedis per term to enable authorities run the Centre effectively in addition to assistance from donors. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, Mr. Alexander Tetteh, National Administrator of the Ghana Society of the Physically Challenged said due to lack of funding for projects at the centre, the three-year training period was usually cut short. He added: "Initially allowances and start up capitals were given to the trainees but now they are no longer forthcoming". Mr. Tetteh said the lack of materials for the centre had also resulted in the production of low quality products while some of the trainees passed out without acquiring the needed skills to make them employable to fend for themselves.

He noted that the problem had caused many of the trainees to go back to the streets to beg for alms even after their training. The National Administrator also bemoaned the deplorable conditions of the dormitories at the centre as well as the compound, which housed the offices of the various handicapped societies. "Even the compound is not accessible to the people here because most of them use wheelchairs which cannot be moved on the rough surface and this has rendered this place a death trap", he added. He said some of the donor agencies which used to support them were withdrawing their assistance because they felt the government should allow the inmates of the centre to benefit from the School Feeding Programme.