ADAKLU-ANYIGBE PWDS GET EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (PAGE 19, JAN 19, 2011)

Persons with disabilities (PWD) in the Adaklu Anyigbe District of the Volta Region have set up a nine-member executive committee to steer their affairs.
Chaired by Mr Daniel Kpene, the committee has been inaugurated and sworn into office at Agotime Kpetoe.
The Adaklu Anyigbe association is the ninth in the region and the executive committee hopes to work and bring their members together to ensure that they are given the needed recognition in every field of endeavour.
In his inaugural speech, the Adaklu Anyigbe District Chief Executive, Mr Michael Kombla Adzaho, expressed his satisfaction that persons with disabilities had decided to come together to make their voices heard.
Mr Adzaho said the formation of the association was in the right direction since members should always aspire to achieve the best.
“You should not lose hope in life but aim for the best in life,” he urged them.
He assured them of the district assembly’s support anytime they called for it.
The Ho Municipal Director of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Mr Atsu Havor, commended non-governmental organisations for providing amenities and facilities, which had assisted in transforming the lives of people across the country.
Mr Havor expressed regret at the tendency of some operatives of non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) to manipulate their organisations to make money for themselves.
He called on the association to register with the DSW to ensure that they complied with the guidelines of their existence.
The Executive Director of Future Hope International, an NGO, Mr Vincent Sabblah Incoom, said the issue of the marginalisation of persons with disabilities had assumed great dimensions.
Mr Incoom noted that though a number of NGOs , societies and associations existed with the expressed aim of improving the lot of persons with disabilities, their contributions had been minimal.
“For, apart from the few officials that may be actively engaged in providing services, the bulk of the population generally ignore the needs of the disables,” he said.
As such, Mr Incoom said those in the rural areas which constituted 90 percent of about the two million people with disabilities in the city were neglected.
He called on all to join hands to draw the government’s attention to the problems of persons with disabilities to provide them protection against all acts that made their lives more difficult.