By Rancy Clarke, Bong County Correspondent
rancyclarke56@gmail.com
People living with disabilities in Liberia, commonly referred to as PWD, particularly Bong County say they are left behind in society and they live in destitution because of infrastructure inaccessibility, lack of inclusive education and employment.
They don’t feel part of society, making them to feel dehumanized.
For many with a physical disability, a ramp is their only means of ambulating into any facility or a premise.
But it seems challenging for them to navigate into some major facilities in Bong due to the inaccessibility of public and private facilities.
Benedict Kollie, a physically challenged resident of Gbarnga who could not hold back his emotions, said they find it extremely hard to ambulate through these facilities because of narrow entrances.
For example, he stated that the Bong County Technical College lacks ramps to enable people with physical disability or visual impairment to access the building.
He at the same time emphasized the lack of equality in education and job employment as another challenge facing them.
According to him, the education system of Liberia is not inclusive; thus, depriving people living with disabilities their rights to education. He added that the curriculum does not give priority to children with visual impairment and as such, many schools across the country don’t consider incorporating them.
Commenting on employment opportunities, Kollie said the county authorities including lawmakers do not consider them when hiring staffers for their offices.
He argued that disability is not inability, but the challenges society throws at them are triggers for their poor status. Many physically challenged individuals consider themselves living with “difability”, term coined to mean individuals doing thing in a different way.
Benedict Kollie became disabled in 2017 as a result of a terrible accident that resulted to the amputation of his leg.
Kollie plays for the Liberia National Amputee Soccer Team, and he was in the squad that took on Ghana and defeated them.
For her part, Hannah George explaining her ordeals to our reporter said the school she attends is not accessible and as such, she faces difficulty every school day to go to her class with her wheelchair.
Hannah lamented that she gets down from her wheelchair and crawls through the bathroom door to ease herself.
The bathroom is not clean, crawling there always is unhealthy but the situation is inevitable, she added.
These treatments are in violation of the United Nations Convention on The Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The United Nations Convention On the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) calls for equal treatment for people living with disabilities and freedom from discrimination, and social and economic rights in areas like education, healthcare, employment and transport.
