The Poverty and Disability Initiative in Nigeria, (PADIN) has lamented the increased rate of poverty among People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) in Nigeria while promising to contribute their quota in filling the gap.
This was disclosed by the President and founder of the Non-Governmental Organisation, Olatunji Oladaya Lincoln while speaking with timeline.ng on Saturday during the distribution of crutches to PWDs at the disability colony, Karonmajigi, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory.
About 360 crutches were distributed to the PWDs in the community.
He maintained that there has been a lot of talk about taking care of the disabled in Nigeria but nothing much has been done by the government to alleviate their suffering. This, he said, prompted PADIN - in collaboration with their partner, New Chance Global Initiative (NCGI) - to provide the elbow crutches to them, with the promise to make more deliveries in the near future.
He explained further, “I was born as a person with a disability, and if you look, there are over thirty million Nigerians that are persons with disabilities. We need people to fill the gap for them. The rate at which poverty increases within the circle of these persons within the disabled community is very high and alarming. Thank God I had the privilege to have gone to school.
“And as the person with a disability that I am, I think I have to represent the thirty million people. I have to fill the gap too which is why you saw me here doing this for my people. They are my people,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Mr. Taiwo Ibukun Oluwa Okpeyo who is one of the volunteers for NCGI Nigeria, said, “Today we are partnering with PADIN to distribute crutches for disabled people here. Our main aim and objective is to help people living with disability by giving them crutches, walking aides, and wheelchairs. Also, we cater for elderly persons in our society."
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Meanwhile, the project Director of PADIN, Christina Obinna Okafor explained why the choice of Karonmajigi for the delivery of the crutches.
“We discovered that this Karonmajigi is the disability colony in Abuja. This is where you have most people living with a disability residing. So rather than going about seeking disabled people on the street we felt it is better we come here. There is actually somebody who is the leader of the people living with disability here which makes it easier to reach out to all manner of people living with disability, because they have them on record. Like you have seen, they have the list. They have it typed out and it made our work easier,” she told our reporter.
She explained further that the joy they see on the faces of the recipients is what motivates them to want to do more.
“As you saw on the NCGI t-shirt, we are sharing love, we are sharing passion, and we are sharing joy. It is unbelievable the relief you see on the faces of these people. As we tagged it UNBURDEN, we are lifting off the burden of having to look for prosthetics for these people, because I don’t know when they will be able to get prosthetics like the crutches, or the wheelchairs on their own. It is quite expensive. And so when you have these things and you can give it out to them you are actually lifting lots of burdens,” she said.
The Country Director of PADIN in Nigeria, Paul Mubuchi Ogbonna on his own part stressed that the job of trying to alleviate the suffering of the people living with a disability does not end at distributing crutches.
“As a matter of fact we are going to be bringing a lot of things on the table like entrepreneurship. We are going to bring more things to the table to make them understand that they can be very useful to themselves in spite of their disability. We plan to move a lot of them off the streets and empower them. We hope to give them the spirit of entrepreneurship. It all starts with teaching. Once you are able to impart knowledge and education into someone you have helped that person,” he said.
