….Klaus Jahn

The President of Africa Action Deutschland, (aa/D), Klaus Jahn, has indicated that access to public structures should not be a constraint for persons with disabilities to receive skills training and quality education.
He has, therefore, recommended that a comprehensive and integral national, institutional, district level and community level policy directives could promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities and further make a significant contribution to redressing the profound social exclusion of persons with disabilities and promote their participation in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural spheres with equal opportunities, in both developing and developed countries.
Mr. Klaus said this at a three-day take-off workshop at Prampram to discuss the implementation of the vision of aa/D and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, on a project titled “Inclusive vocational training for physically handicapped and socially disadvantaged youth in southern Ghana.”

The workshop was organized by the Don Bosco Youth Network West Africa (DBYN), a youth and child-centered non-governmental organization in Ghana, with implementation centres in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Participants were drawn from the Special Education Department of the University for Education, Winneba; Special Education Division, Accra; Africa Action, Germany; DBYN, National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) Ghana and four selected beneficiary vocational training institutes in southern Ghana.
The project, which is being implemented in partnership with the DBYN, is being implemented by five different countries: India, Ecuador, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Ghana. Through DBYN, the main partner of aa/D, Ghana is the first partner to have started implementation.
In Ghana, the project is being implemented by the Baobab Children Foundation in the Central Region, New Century Career Training Centre in the Greater Accra Region, St. Mary’s Vocational Training Institute in the Eastern Region and in the Volta Region by the Evangelical Presbyterian Technical Vocational Technical Institute (EPVTI).
The President called on Heads of the four beneficiary schools to use funds provided for the project to develop their infrastructure and make their schools open, easily accessible and disability friendly.
The Executive Director of DBYN, Bro. Günter Mayer and Chief Executive Officer of DBYN, David Ampomah Mensah expressed their appreciation to aa/D and BMZ, Germany, for the partnership and hoped that the existing working relationship would be sustained.
Mr. Mensah accentuated that this project in the beneficiaries schools should spark a wind of change and social inclusion for persons with disability in the social strata in Ghana.
“All schools and learning environments, hospitals and clinics, corporate, market and institutional environments must be disability friendly—this is not an excess or superfluous to require special law enforcement. It is just the normal thing to do,” he maintained.
The Programme Director for aa/D, Doris Diana Kwadade, indicated that disability is a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which in interaction with various barriers may hinder full and effective performance of functions and participation in society on an equal basis.
She indicated that persons with disabilities do not need sympathy but empathy from all persons, and that they want to be given a voice, they want to be recognized, accepted, appreciated and given access and equal opportunities to education and employment, stressing that disability does not suggest inability.
Godfred Kwami Tay, Advisor to aa/D, noted with concern that, “one of the greatest problems facing the world today was the growing number of persons who are excluded from meaningful participation in the economic, social and cultural life of their communities.”
The Deputy Director for Special Education Division (SpED) of the Ghana Education Service, Thomas Patrick Otaah, outlined initiatives of SpED in implementing inclusive education in Ghana.
He said, since 1961, the core mandate of SpED has been to provide education, training and special services to children and youth with disabilities and special educational needs in Ghana, and that to fulfill this mandate, SpED has adopted two major intervention strategies. Thus, Teacher Resource Support System (TRSS), and Direct Training Support System (DSS).
TRSS seeks to brief and equip teachers who are posted or attached to schools to provide teaching support, while DSS provides training on inclusive education and special needs, basic teaching pedagogy, and strategies for managing children with special needs. Such training skills are usually provided to key stakeholders including Heads of Schools, parents, key officers at the District Directorate of Education and Circuit Supervisors.
The Coordinator for Technical Vocational Training of the SpED, Ato Ghansah, expressed gratitude to DBYN, aa/D, and all the four vocational training institutions for the good vision and intervention strategies aimed at promoting and expanding access to vocational training for the disabled and socially disadvantaged people in Ghana.
He called on similar corporate bodies and individuals to partner with SpED, NVTI and GES in providing quality vocational and technical training for the disabled and socially excluded people in Ghana.
Samuel Amoako-Gyimah and Florence A. Mensah, of the Special Education Department, University for Education, Winneba, underscored the importance of scientific research in identifying special education needs and developing academic programmes for promoting quality special education in Ghana and intimated that though important, funds for conducting research into special education were not available in Ghana.
They, therefore, appealed to government to give priority towards equipping research institutions and departments responsible for special training to enable them undertake research in their respective institutions.