An effort to raising Shs 500m to procure an assortment of assistive devices that will benefit more than 1,000 vulnerable individuals with disabilities across the country is short of its fundraising goal, but National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda are determined to make the dream of many a reality for all.
This focuses mostly on children of school-going age, among other vulnerable persons with disability.
Persons with disability constitute 12.4 per cent of Uganda’s population according to the 2014 Housing and Population Census, explains Mr. Edson Ngirabakunzi, the executive director NUDIPU.
School enrolment levels among children with disabilities remain very low. According to a 2010 report from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 40,000 children with disabilities start school every year, but only about 1,200 complete their primary education.
In spite of these statistics, and in light of the unequal access to services particularly in education, health care and transportation, among others, poverty and disability in Uganda have remained impossible to disentangle.
Matters are not helped by the very high cost of assistive devices such guides and helpers, which are way out of reach for most PWD children as most of them come from impoverished families.
An illustration of the inequitable access to services is amplified by disability-specific barriers such as inaccessible infrastructure including buildings in service delivery centers, which is in total contravention of the Building Control Act 2013.
But a fundraiser last month at the Kampala Serena hotel collected over Shs 27 million, and the NUDIPU leadership is hopeful to secure funding from several Ugandan sources.
Donations can be sent via mobile money on 0700540179 or deliver these devices at Nudipu offices on Bukoto-Kisaasi road. For more information, call Esther on 0772647648 or Edson on 0704420041.
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