The National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) has announced plans to work in collaboration with all county Level 4 and 5 hospitals to offer free medical services to persons with disabilities (PWD).
The programme will also include free therapy sessions and provision of essential drugs prescribed specifically for the PWDs.
Speaking today at the Garissa School for the mentally handicapped during the commemoration of the World Autism Awareness day, NCPWD chief executive officer Harun Hassan said that the People with disabilities have been marginalised for so long and that they are working on programmes to help them going into the future.
The council further offered free medical camp, disability assessments, education assessments and occupational therapy sessions to the PWDs who attended the event.
“PWDs are slowly standing up for their rights and rising up to occupy their spaces because they have gone to school and learnt and are able to deliver whenever called up,” Hassan said.
“I want to urge our leaders to be our ambassadors and speak for us in tables where we are not represented and help in protecting our rights,” he added.
Garissa Township MP Mohamed Dekow on his part said that parliament will be coming up with a bill to ensure that all caregivers for the severely disabled persons are paid a stipend by the government.
At the same time, Dekow said that he will set up a special clinic at the Garissa school for the mentally handicapped to enable the students to easily access medical services without having to go through the normal hospitals which are at times crowded denying them the specialized services they need.
He called on the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) to deploy more teachers to the facility in anticipation of higher enrollment next term.
“We want all those who take care of the people with severe disabilities to be paid by the government. I want to call on parents who have special needs children to enroll them here as we work with all the partners to ensure that we provide enough resources for them,” Dekow said.
“We are going to set up a clinic centre here so that we do not need to go to the regular hospitals. I will set up the physical structures here through the constituency development fund and I hope the National council for persons with disabilities, together with other partners will work on equipping the clinic and making sure that it has trained doctors to handle children with disabilities,” he added.
By Erick Kyalo
