The Ghana National Gas Company has supported the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation with 200 wheelchairs and walking aids for distribution to persons with physical mobility challenges in accessing public services.
The Chief Executive of Ghana National Gas Company Limited, Dr. Ben Asante, who made the presentation on Monday said the gesture was part of the company’s contribution to making persons with physical disabilities relatively independent.
He expressed the hope that the items would help ease the mobility challenges of many persons with disabilities and enable them to access public goods and services more effortlessly.
In response, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba, Executive Director of Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation and a former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said there were approximately 187,522 persons with physical disabilities in Ghana of which less than 30 percent have wheelchairs and/or walking aids.
She said compounding the situation was the fact that the majority of persons with physical disabilities were poor, unemployed, and dependent on charity and handouts from relatives, friends, and the general public.
To help mitigate the challenge, the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation launched a campaign in November last year, to mobilize 16,000 wheelchairs and walking aids, targeting at least 1,000 per each of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions.
Dr. Djaba was thankful to Ghana National Gas Company for responding to the campaign with the wheelchairs and walking aids to the Foundation, saying: “Apart from this generous donation, at our request, the Ghana National Gas has also employed for the first time in the energy sector, a person with a disability in the person of Mr. Isaac Ansah who is visually impaired”.
She noted if each public service organization in Ghana could emulate this example, “then we would have many more persons with disability employed in the public sector.”
“We commend the Ghana National Gas Company Limited this exemplary leadership and hope that other agencies would take a cue from this.”
In Ghana, government agencies and parastatals are projected to be over 118 public service organizations.
The Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation is a disability and gender-based nongovernmental organization established in December 2018.
