One of the people who has a disability in Dedza District, Richie Musonje, has appealed to government agencies tasked with distribution of soft loans and offering vocational skills training to give special consideration to people with disabilities.
Musonje said most of them are trapped in poverty and require such assistance.
“Most of us like going in town and soliciting funds for daily life. That is not good! We need skills to find our own means for survival in life. As for me, I am a musician and a carpenter,” he said.
Executive Director for the Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA), Symon Munde, described the concern as genuine.
“It is really important to come up with deliberate measures that help in uplifting the socio-economic status of persons with disabilities. We have been in talks with the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF) for them to develop an operational disability policy that will help in effecting special measures that will promote the economic status of persons with disabilities through access to loans,” Munde said.
NEEF Credit Analysis Manager, Whytone Kapasule, confirmed that consultations with organisations for people with disabilities on the draft policy were indeed done.
“It is going to be presented at the first sitting of the new Board of Directors, once it [the Board] is reconstituted,” Kapasule said.
Regarding the provision of vocational skills to persons with disabilities to enhance self-reliance, Munde said the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) had allocated a quarter of its enrolment to people with disabilities.
“However, their academic qualification requirements become a barrier against applicants with disabilities. This calls for deliberate measures that will promote access to these programmes such as the removal of academic requirements and offering community-based programmes through local artisans,” he said.
Publicist for TEVETA, Carol Magreta, said they had not yet received approval.
According to the National Statistics Office, 1,734,250 people in Malawi have one or more disabilities, representing about 11.6 percent of the country’s population aged over five years.
