Harare (New Ziana)-The Government has shifted from giving persons with disabilities monthly grants to giving them funds to start viable projects, a senior official said on Thursday.
Previously, the government would give persons with disabilities a monthly grant or stipend which activists argued was inadequate and unsustainable.
National disability affairs director in the Ministry of Public service, Labour and Social Welfare, Dr Christine Peta told New Ziana on the sidelines of a journalists’ sensitisation workshop that Zimbabwe had moved from a monthly grant to economically empowering persons with disabilities.
“A grant promotes the notion that persons with disabilities are passive recipients of hand-outs and we have since moved from that. As a country we have moved from the charity of disability where we are taking a human rights-based approach under which we are economically empowering persons with disabilities to have their own income generating projects in the communities where they live and fend for themselves and their families and contribute to the development of the nation.
“We have a disability fund which is funded from the treasury every year for economic empowerment of persons with disabilities,” she said.
Dr Peta said under the fund, persons with disabilities are getting an equivalent of US$3000 to start viable projects.
“They get an equivalent of US$3000 for a group of persons who come together to do a project and they do not have to repay the money.
“We get applications almost daily; some want to rear chickens; pigs; some want to make detergents for sale. That’s the approach that we are taking.
We are working with the National Building society (NBS) because they have the expertise and the capacity to administer finances. As the department, we identify the need, process applications and ensure that they are in line with the requirements and then we submit to NBS,” she said adding the department also imparts skills to persons with disabilities.
“They are doing very well and it’s sustainable,” added Dr Peta.
Joice Matara, director of the National Association of Societies for the Handicapped (NASCOH) commended the government’s initiative saying it strives to upgrade persons with disabilities from being perpetually seeking alms.
“It’s very commendable that the government put in place that fund because many persons with disabilities who were regarded as charity cases can now be able to carry out their own initiatives because they now have access to funding unlike before where they depended on other people to take care of them.
“We however still have a lot to do in terms of raising awareness and also capacitating those persons with disabilities who would want to access that fund in terms of producing winning proposals, project ideas that can be very viable,” said Matara.
New Ziana
