Following concerns raised by Richie Musonje, a person with a disability from Dedza, regarding economic empowerment interventions and vocational skills training for persons with disabilities, the Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (MACODA) has emphasized that it is making headway with efforts to promote the welfare of people with disabilities.
MACODA Director General, George Chiusiwa, said the statutory body has facilitated the development of policies aimed at ensuring financial inclusion for persons with disabilities through the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF).
“We are still looking forward to seeing the NEEF policy approved by the board and implemented,” Chiusiwa said.
He further said that the Council provides both formal and informal training through its centres in Lilongwe and Chiradzulu while also providing such skills training at community level across Malawi.
“The informal vocational skills training does not require one to have particular educational qualifications as one’s ability to read and write is the prerequisite for a person with a disability to enrol in our informal skills training programme,” he stressed.
Some of the trainings provided at the two vocational centres are carpentry and joinery, welding and fabrication, tailoring and fashion design, bricklaying, motorcycle mechanics, cosmetology, community and rural development, information and communication technology (ICT), computer engineering, horticulture, apiculture, and poultry farming.
“People with with disabilities enroll for the vocational training programme for free as they are identified across Malawi. The only drawback or challenge is that MACODA does not enrol more trainees due to inadequate funding from the government despite that we have the capacity to train more in a year,” Chiusiwa said.
In 2022, Malawi signed the African Disability Protocol as part of its commitment to supporting interventions for persons with disabilities. The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) has since commended State President Dr Lazarus Chakwera for endorsing the protocol.
