Madam Sirina Mahamadu, the Bono Regional representative of the Ghana Federation of Disability (GFD) organisation has appealed to the government, benevolent donors and philanthropist to support Persons with Disability (PWDs) with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

She observed that getting adequate PPE would help them to comply with the safety precautionary measures laid down by government and health authorities to prevent them from contracting and spreading the virus and contribute to the fight.

She made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after a presentation on the topic “challenges of PWDs in the COVID-19 pandemic” at the Bono Regional Health Directorate yearly Performance review meeting in Sunyani.

Madam Sirina said out of the 712 members of GFD in the Sunyani East Municipality, only 94 benefited from the Assembly PPE distribution and explained that the outbreak of the virus negatively affected their businesses and the restriction and ban on social gatherings such as parties, funeral and weddings during the initial stage of the outbreak hit most of the members economically.

Madam Sarina revealed that the majority of PWDs could not benefit from the government reliefs package to support businesses, which was making the standard of living difficult.

She observed that COVID-19 health education was not accessible to most members especially to the hearing impaired, the deaf and the blind.

Madam Sarina appealed to Government to give attention to PWDs in emergency cases particularly on health to save the group from calamities.

She asked the government to provide capacity building training in skills development to help revive their businesses.