The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has embarked on a programme to empower children with severe disabilities in the country with over 800 such children from five districts across the country having benefited over the past 12 months.
The initiative being supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) is contributing to the implementation of the National Disability Policy (NDP) in Epworth (Harare), Mutasa (Manicaland), Beitbridge (Matabeleland South), and Zvishavane (Midlands).
In an interview with the media in Epworth during tour facilitated by the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry and UNICEF, Regis Manjoro the programmes manager for Zimbabwe Parents of the Handicapped Children Association (ZPCHA) said that mothers of the children with disabilities bear the brunt of looking after such children as men usually take a back seat or even desert their families, accusing their spouses of causing the disabilities of their children.
Manjoro said following the stigma and discrimination associated with disabilities in families, they formed ZPCHA for the purpose of assisting affected parents in taking care of their children.
“What we are now doing in partnership with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and UNICEF is we are now trying to formalise services that are required by children with disabilities, particularly access to early childhood education.
“What we are now doing is we are establishing school-based child stimulation centres as the children depend on child stimulation,” said Manjoro.
He said in the absence of child stimulation, the children are prone to some secondary disabilities, hence their efforts to decentralise the national disability policy which states that services should be brought to the community where the children are found as they must not travel for long distances seeking various services required by children with disabilities.
With the assistance of their partners, Manjoro said they are now able to bring physiotherapists as well as government social workers including other essential government and local authority professionals to the school-based stimulation classes to offer services to children with disabilities.
“So far, working in those five districts over a period of the last 12 months we have managed to reach out to more than 800 children who have accessed various services including access to birth certificates, some children have also accessed early childhood education from the ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
“Some are already benefiting from the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) school payment facilities, some have benefitted from the nutritional programme offered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education,” said Manjoro, adding that others have benefitted from assistive devices as well as various other forms of support from faith-based organisations among others.
One of the women with three children, all with different forms of disabilities, Tendai Chaperevera from Chuzungu area in Epworth said she had two marriages which all collapsed as both men accused her of being responsible for their children’s disabilities.
She however, paid tribute to Government and UNICEF for facilitating the acquisition of birth certificates for her children as they could not access education due to lack of the documents.
“I tried on my own to get them the birth registration documents without success as their birth records indicated that they were born in Rusape which mandated me to travel there to have them registered, but I could not afford the costs.
“However, through this Government-UNICEF programme I managed to acquire the documents here in Epworth although the children were born in Rusape,” said Chaperevera.
She also hailed other programmes being offered by the partners such as physiotherapy which assisted one of her children who could not speak properly as she can now clearly pronounce words as well as able to hold a pen and write well.
Sarudzai Musagwiza whose child has cerebral pulse said her marriage once collapsed as a result of her child’s disability although they later found each other with her husband following knowledge gained from the Government-UNICEF interventions.
Priscilla Rongoti, a Child Care Worker (CCW) in Epworth said she was motivated to volunteer working with children with disabilities after seeing affected children suffering different forms of discrimination by both society and parents.
“Some children were kept indoors whilst fathers deserted the families upon the birth of a child with disabilities leaving their wives with the burden of looking after the children on their own,” said Rongoti.
She also paid tribute to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and UNICEF for coming on board to help children with disabilities as parents with affected children now meet regularly and share ideas.
The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has also made other deliberate efforts to assist people with disabilities in the country which has seen 227 360 persons with disabilities receiving food assistance this year, 6 251 getting cash transfers and 5 463 getting payment of per capita grants for persons with disabilities who live in residential institutions among many others.
New Ziana
