Ho-Ghana, April 8, GNA – Some 20 women with disability in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region have benefited from a training scheme to facilitate their easy identification and accessibility of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) at the local level.
The project is being undertaking by the Women with Disability Development and Advocacy Organisation (WODAO), a disability friendly, advocacy and empowerment not-for-profit entity.
It would enable the beneficiaries to be assertive and start self-advocacy and participate in local decision-making processes.
Ms Veronica Denyo Kofiedu, the Executive Director of WODAO, said the project envisaged to engender assertiveness among the target group raising their individual profiles towards self-reliance.
The women were empowered to access social services including the three per cent DACF earmarked for people with disability and exposed to the new guidelines for the management and disbursement of the fund.
The project is being funded by the Ghana Somubi Dwumadie (Ghana Participation Programme) with GHS100,000 as part of its Sustainability and Legacy Grants Project.
This would assist WODAO to implement a one-year capacity strengthening programme for the women in the Ho Municipal and Ho West District.
Madam Kofiedu noted that women and girls with disability, including those with mental health and psychosocial conditions, continued to face human rights barriers.
She said the project would empower beneficiaries to take up their rightful positions in society devoid of penury and hopelessness.
Madam Elikplim Klu, the President of the Volta Regional Ghana Federation of Disabled Organisation, who facilitated the training, said the main objective of the DACF for persons with disability (PWDs) was to support them in income-generating activities, empower them economically, and provide educational support including vocational and apprenticeship training.
It is also to help them to gain access to technical aid and other assistive devices and equipment.
Madam Klu said the National Council on Persons with Disability was the organ responsible for monitoring and evaluating the management and disbursement of the DACF for PWDs in compliance with Section 42 (2) of the Persons with Disability Act 2006 (Act 715).
Disbursements would be guided by 50 per cent being allocated for economic empowerment, 10 per cent for education and training, and 15 per cent for medicals and assistive devices.
Others are five per cent for administrative cost of the disability Fund management committee and 10 per cent for advocacy, and organisational development, all of which apply to qualified applicants.
The Ghana Somubi Dwumadie is a four-year disability programme being run with funding support from the UKAid under the partnership of ‘Options’ led consortium, consisting of Basic Needs Ghana, Kings College London, Sight Savers International and Tropical Health, with specific focus was on mental health.
WODAO was established in 2017 as a women-led organisation, which works to promote independent living and social inclusion of marginalised women and children with disability in the Volta and Oti regions.
