By Hannah Awadzi
Takoradi, Dec. 6, GNA – Ms Esther Cobbah, CEO of Stratcomm Africa, a communications Organisation has said that society loses valuable capabilities of persons with disabilities if they are excluded.
“Persons with disabilities have a lot of valuable abilities that could help enhance development; if we continue to exclude them, because of their disabilities, society loses big time,” she said
Ms Cobbah said in a developing country like Ghana, exclusion was dangerous, because we need to harness the abilities of all persons for our development.
She was speaking to media practitioners at a programme dubbed: Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting Disability (MCBIRD)
MCBIRD is an initiative by the Young African Media Centre with support from the United States Embassy in Ghana to provide professional development, guidance, and platforms for journalists to effectively report on disability.
Ms Cobbah said that when we engage and include persons with disabilities it also enhances our humanity as a people, and it helps promote social empathy.
“In most palaces in Ghana, there is usually a person with disability who is close to the chief to remind the chief of his role in promoting humanity and inclusion,” she said
Rev. Alexander Nyame, Coordinator, the Ministry to Persons with Disabilities of the Church of Pentecost, urged Ghanaians to desist assuming that persons with Disabilities cannot do anything.
He said persons with Disabilities have unused skills, potential and talents but because society, for many years, has thought of them as incapable so they are not harnessed for development.
Rev. Nyame called on all Ghanaians to make practical efforts to promote inclusion for persons with disabilities, saying “we encourage everyone to be committed to the full inclusion of persons with disabilities. Full inclusion is possible.”
GNA