The Department for International Development (DFID), in partnership with UNICEF and the British Council held a shadow Disability Summit in Harare ahead of the Global Disability Summit to be held in London this July.
At the summit Ralph Watungwa, the Chief Executive Officer at Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe Limited, implored people to give tools to persons with disabilities and empower the self-determined.
Watungwa said that the empowerment of people with disabilities should go beyond the individual.
“The issue of empowerment starts with societal acceptance. It’s in how we give support to communities and parents of children with disabilities,” said Watungwa.
He added that there is need to invest in the amount of therapy that is given to mothers who deliver children with disabilities. It should not be assumed that siblings, guardians and relatives of people with disabilities will know how to cater for people with disabilities, he said.
The banker said that the way communities accept and live with people with disabilities has an influence on how prepared they are to take opportunities.
“There are many opportunities but these are taken by people who are best prepared for them. We need to encourage people with disabilities to work hard because the world is competitive,” Watungwa said.
Tsitsi Chataika, an educationist at the University of Zimbabwe and disability rights activist, said in 2015 the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education conducted a study that showed a lot of children are left out of the school system because of how schools are designed and because of attitudinal barriers in the communities they live in.
“The notion of inclusive education is not just about people with disabilities but it is about everyone. People with disabilities are denied access to education and are told to get special education. Education is a right, people with disabilities deserve to enjoy that right too,” Chataika said.
She added that people should dispel the notion that persons with disabilities do not need an education. Disability and poverty are related and the first port of call in eradicating poverty is equal access to education.
The advisor to the President on National Disability, Joshua Malinga, said that people with disability need to know that they have to liberate themselves.
Malinga added that his generation fought for the Disability Act and did not get it on a platter.
“In order for the disability movement to take place people with disabilities need to initiate it. The movement is very divided right now but there is need for political will and people who want to proffer solutions.
Advisor Malinga asserted that there is need for a grassroots based, democratic and nationwide disability movement that communicates, writes reports and shares information widely. He said in support of this he will ensure that there is a Disability Act by the end of the year.
