Persons With Disabilities Seek Support To Excel

The Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), a leading organization of persons with disabilities in the Niger Delta region, has called on those in positions of authority to evolve functional and sustainable mechanism that would help address both the human and infrastructural development challenges of the people of the region.

The Niger Delta Regional Chiarman, Mr David ThankGod Enogho, made the call last Saturday, during the 2016 International Day of Persons with Disabilities celebration at the Nigeria Airforce Base, Port Harcourt.

Enogho said the theme for 2016: “Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want,” draws attention to the 17 sustainable Development Goals, and how the goals can create a more inclusive and equitable world for persons with disabilities.

“JONAPWD is out to create a common platform that would champion our cause with a view to evolving better ways of improving our welfare as well as overcoming the peculiar challenges which we face in the society where we find ourselves,” he said.

In her speech, the Executive Director of a non-governmental organization, Keeping It Real (KIR), Bitebo Gogo said that after undergoing a surgery in 2010, she realized that there was a thin line between ability and disability, and charged those persons with disabilities to understand that they have the ability to create a future they want for themselves without waiting for government legislation to frame an environment for them.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana