Millions snatched from the disabled

Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Thursday April 17, 2014 12:58

 

They claim the People with Disabilities bureau within the Office of the President passed on the venture funded by Norway’s Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF).

In partnership with Southern Africa Federation of Disabled (SAFOD), the project aimed at finding out how the disabled lived, while empowering them at the same time through employment creation opportunities.

SAFOD board member and Botswana Society of People with Disabilities, Wabotlhe Chimidza, said that he had lobbied for the project to come to Botswana so as to create employment and empowerment for the disabled. However, it was passed to the non-disabled, said Chimidza.

“The projects have been done in other Southern African countries and as a board member I advocated that the study come to Botswana.

However, I was not included when the federation came here because the understanding was that there is an office for the disabled at the OP,” he said.

“The problem began when our representatives at OP chose not to contact us or engage us. This is what always happens. The coordinator always wants to serve us without engaging us, and this is unacceptable because we believe in the slogan ‘nothing for us without us.’” Chimidza said it was preferable that the disabled run the study because first of all they understand the issues better than anybody else.

Secondly, the study would offer the disabled empowerment in the form of training for the study and employment.

Also, groups of the disabled would accumulate resources, as they would be able to buy materials and equipment for the project, and later keep these for use in the future. “This rare opportunity has now been snatched away,” he said, adding,

“The disabled coordinator (in the OP) should have specified that the project should engage disabled persons”.

Currently the OP has engaged Dr Tlamelo Mmatli of the University of Botswana to run the study, which is expected to be complete in May.

Chimidza said that even in this, he was not informed or involved.

Upon hearing that Mmatli was training people for the study last week, Chimidza and others gate crashed the venue where they discovered that none of the trained employees for the study are disabled.

“I said this is wrong. This empowerment was meant for the disabled.

The wrong people are benefiting at the expense of the disabled who are always marginalised. I advocated for the disabled and somebody else is benefiting,” he said.

Chimidza said he approached Mmatli who later asked for two or three disabled people to join the trainees.

Meanwhile, Mmatli confirmed that he had been assigned the study, but added that he did not know that it was exclusively for the disabled. He would not answer any further questions.

The Coordinator for the Disabled in the Office of the President could not be reached for comment as he was said to be in meetings. Government spokesperson, Jeff Ramsay, also could not be reached as he was said to be in a meeting, after which he would be travelling to the United States. He had also not responded to an email sent to him.

The Botswana Federation of Disabled Coordinator, Shirley Keoagile said the fact that universities had been engaged on research was based on policy development. She said their inclusion would help in that regard.

Keoagile however, revealed that of all the people taking part in the survey more than 38 were non-disabled while less than five were people with disabilities.

“Why is Botswana continuing to discuss issues and implement our programmes without us?” she asked, adding that, “It is entirely wrong and shows we still have a long way to go as a country.

The P3 million that is used in this project should have been used to support and reduce unemployment among people with disabilities, who are awaiting job placements”.

In an interview, chairman of the Botswana Federation of the Disabled, Omphemetse Ramabokwa, explained that they realized only recently that the study had started while they were still waiting to be briefed on it.

He, however, expressed delight that the survey would finally reveal the statistics of people living with disabilities in Botswana.

The research project has been conducted in several other Southern African countries including Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho and

Swaziland.

In each of the other countries, activists say, organisations for people living with disabilities have been placed at the centre of the propject