Tamale, Jan. 16, GNA- The Ghana National Trust Fund (GNTF) on Thursday presented working tools valued at about 60 million cedis to people living with disabilities in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

The items include sewing machines, driers and carpentry tools. The Fund also donated seven million cedis for the purchase of accessories for the tools.

The donation was aimed at assisting some 30 beneficiaries, ten from each region, to support them to achieve self-sufficiency.

In a speech read for him, Mr Ernest Debrah, Northern Regional Minister, called on the public, NGOs and other development planners to take cognisance of the needs of the physically challenged in their development planning process.

He said the physically challenged were an integral part of society and that they should be empowered with employable skills to live. Mr Debrah appealed to the beneficiaries not to sell the equipment but to put them to good use in order to derive the optimum benefit. Mrs Emma Banga, a member of the Fund's Board of Trustees, said although demands on the Fund were many, members had ensured that those with special needs were given urgent attention.

She said apart from the 30 recipients from the Northern Regions, 10 other beneficiaries from the Brong Ahafo Region, would also benefit from the fund.

Mr Mumuni Seidu Justice, a representative of the recipients described the gesture as timely since most of them were in need of equipment to establish their own businesses. He gave the assurance that the equipment would be put to good use and called on other NGOs and institutions to emulate the GNTF by donating generously to mitigate the plight of the physically challenged.