Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) - NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA

NGO, logistics Coy partner to empower PWDs, fight hunger

Vivian Ihechu
Jun, Wed, 2025

Health

NGO, logistics Coy partner to empower PWDs, fight hunger

201 total views today

By Lilian U. Okoro

As part of efforts to fight hunger, the Pukka Logistics and Support Service Ltd., in collaboration with the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), have distributed food items to no fewer than 240 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

The outreach to celebrate PWDs in Lagos, was part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the logistics company.

Mrs Florence Austin of CCD, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the event was to distribute rice and groundnut oil to 240 PWDs.

According to her, the PWDs include those with albinism, deafness, blindness, physical challenges, spinal cord injuries, and intellectual disabilities.

“We organised the event through cluster heads to ensure orderly distribution and also provided security due to past incidents.

“The event aims to honour children and PWDs, emphasising the importance of inclusion and support,” she said.

The Managing Director of Pukka Logistics, Mrs Beulah Akingbelu-Banjo, said that the company had initiated an ambitious mission to combat food poverty while also championing the dignity of PWDs.

She said that the company’s latest initiative took a compassionate turn by partnering with the CCD to distribute food items to PWDs.

Addressing clusters of PWDs, she said: “Whether you are created with disabilities or it befell you, you are special. Your life matters.”

“You have a specific purpose in life, the reason and the essence why you are created, and disability or anything else cannot stop you.

“You can see a lot of people who got popular, who got into places they could never have been just by the virtue of the fact that they have some disabilities.

`So, do not despair. It’s such a beautiful thing when people are not limited by their physical abilities anymore,” she said.

Akingbelu-Banjo said that the outreach was with support from British-Indian business partners Jai Mahtani and Sudeep Ramnani,

“Their goal extends beyond mere food distribution — it’s about restoring dignity, challenging perceptions, and proving that disability is not inability.’’

Pukka Logistics and Support Service Ltd., in collaboration with Center for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) distribute food items to PWDs in Lagos State.

Mr Anuoluwayinka Isaac, a former Chairman of the Nigeria Association of the Blind and an entrepreneur, lauded the programme for providing food support to alleviate the effects of subsidy removal and hunger, especially significant during the festive period. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu

Centre wants public civic places in Ikorodu accessible to PWDs

Vivian Ihechu
Nov, Mon, 2024

Centre wants public civic places in Ikorodu accessible to PWDs

541 total views today

By Lilian U. Okoro

The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has canvassed for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) to be given their fundamental civil rights to access public civic spaces within the Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.

The Programme Assistant of CCD, Tosin Aniramu, made the call at an advocacy programme titled: “One-Day Grassroot Awareness On Free Civic Space For PWDs In Ikorodu”, in Lagos.

Aniramu said the advocacy was as a result of denial of PWDs access to public civic spaces including banks, hospitals, schools, religious centres etc within Ikorodu area of Lagos.

According to her, the programme is in line with CCD’s statutory responsibility and commitment to advocate and promote the lots of PWDs in Nigeria.

Delivering a presentation entitled: “Introduction To Disability And Disability Rights”, Aniramu sensitised participants on the Concept of Disability Clusters, Models of Disability and Disabilities Rights.

She emphasised that PWDs had the fundamental rights to access civic spaces not only at Ikorodu, but also in other parts of the country.

Quoting statistics, Aniramu said that about 16 per cent of the world’s population (1.3 billion persons) lived with one form of disability or the other, and about 29 million Nigerians had one disability or the other as at 2018.

According to her, the World Bank disability growth rate in Nigeria is increasing, owing to consistent conflict, violence, accidents and poor healthcare system.

She, however, said that the best model of disability was the ‘Human Right Model’ which emphasises the dignity of persons with disabilities and their human, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

She said, “The ‘Religious Model’ regards disability as a punishment from God due to sins of the individual or the family.

“The ‘Medical Model’ regards disability as curable and avoidable, while the ‘Charity Model’ describes PWDs as victims of circumstance who are suffering tragic situations and as such should be pitted as they need special services and institutions.

“Unfortunately, on a daily basis, the rights of PWDs are infringed upon by many factors, including ‘Attitudinal Barriers’ stemming from discrimination and stigmatisation, lack of social acceptance, poor parental and guardian attitude.

“Perceptions and beliefs about PWDs; ‘institutional barrier, as lack of implementation and enforcement of legal frameworks, bureaucracy and corruption, low budget allocation for social welfare and low level of awareness on disability inclusion”.

Aniramu said for successful inclusivity of PWDs, the CSOs and media should lobby for inclusive budgeting as well as track budget utilisation and mainstream disability activities, saying that processes and operations should be disability-inclusive.

She also called for more advocacy to influence social change as well as strict enforcement of relevant legal framework and creating more awareness and report violation of PWDs rights.

Aniramu, therefore, recommended using the UN Approved Disability-Inclusive Terminologies when referring or addressing the PWDs. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu