By ABIODUN AZI
An NGO, Project Enable Africa, says it has embarked on measures to reduce poverty among the People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) in Nigeria.
Its director, Mr Olusola Owonikoko, spoke with the Nigeria News Agency on the sidelines of a Media Training on Disability Reporting on Tuesday in Lagos.
Owonikoko said that part of the NGO’s aims was to promote digital and social inclusion of PLWDs.
The director said that for the past five years, the NGO had worked toward promoting digital inclusion of PLWDs by equipping them with skills so that they could have access to available opportunities.
He said the NGO was also doing a lot of advocacy campaign and had launched “Follow DisAct Campaign’’ with the goal of tracking, monitoring and reporting the progress on the Disability Bill.
The project director said that one of the targets was to reach one hundred million Nigerians with the messages of social inclusion within the next five years.
He said the illiterate among the PLWDs was the starting point of the Project Enable Africa in terms of its digital inclusion programmes.
According to him, there are plans on ground to expand the programme to other areas.
Owonikoko said that one of the project’s newest courses was to train PLWDs on how to use computers.
He said: “If the government could do what it is expected to do, and the society is collaborating in that process, poverty among PLWDs would be greatly reduced.
“Even, those who beg for alms on the roads would be positively impacted.
“Because, there would be provisions for them to have some sorts of welfare and support for them.”
Owonikoko said that the NGO’s campaign was its biggest programme which had made it to reach more people and institutional stakeholders.
“Institutional stakeholders mean stakeholders that have a lot of other organisations and sectors under them,” he said.
He said that the media was considered for the training because they could shape cultures, languages and how people act.
“That was why the NGO believes that working with the media organisations and train them on disability inclusion would be strategic in influencing the societal culture and behaviour,’’ Owonikoko said.
Edited By: Olagoke Olatoye