The Albino Foundation Public Notice
The Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area chapter, Bayelsa State, has bemoaned their under-representation and neglect by leaders of the area and government at all levels.
They stated this when a delegation of JONAPWD in the area, led by its president, Salvation Enoch, visited Alagoa Morris, Head of the Environmental Rights Action Niger Delta Resource Centre in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Monday.
Enoch lamented that they had been denied access to their representatives in government, particularly in the executive and legislative arms where they had hoped to be given an audience to express themselves and state their challenges.
He said, “If you look at the Southern Ijaw area, we are the most vulnerable people and we have not gotten the opportunity to speak on issues affecting us as persons with disabilities, especially the neglect that we have been facing.
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“Our leaders, from the local government to the state and federal levels; we are less represented in government and we don’t have free access to our representatives for them to understand that we are also existing as persons with disabilities and that our challenges are supposed to be looked into. It has been very challenging in our effort to have an audience with them.”
He said they had written several letters to various leaders and representatives but discovered that their letters were not usually delivered to them.
While shedding light on the problems of JONAPWD members, Enoch said, “Many of us are less educated. We need JAMB forms and scholarships. We need walking and hearing aids, and magnifying glasses. We need skills acquisition.
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