ACCORDING to the 2002 Population and Housing Census, at least four out of every 25, or 16% of the population in Uganda, have disabilities. Applying this estimate to today’s Ugandan population, estimated at 31.8 million, about five million people are living with disabilities.
One quarter of these are children. In Uganda, if parents give birth to a child with a disability, it is their responsibility to take care of the child.
Many parents of children with disabilities struggle single-handed to bring them up. They incur the cost of their special needs in education, health (surgery, physiotherapy, routine medical check-ups, disease treatment, mobility appliance/aids, their repair and maintenance) and transportation mainly by public means.
The parents become helpers and personal assistants to their children as many of them cannot afford paid labour. This means that the economic productivity for the family livelihood is limited as most time is spent taking care of the child with a disability, especially by mothers.
In Uganda, the Government offers little help with most of the above basic needs. However, NGOs have done a great job helping children and parents of children with disabilities, but there are still those who need support and cannot access it. No wonder the stigma attached to giving birth to a child with a disability is high because the suffering is too much.
In developed countries, the governments look after people with disabilities. For example in Denmark, a person with disability is provided with four or more personal assistants depending on the kind of disability they have.
The assistants are paid by the government. The persons with disabilities are also given free mobility aids and assistive devices like electric wheel chairs. Those who do not work are given a salary or pension every month. They are helped to access cars modified to their disability, are given free education and health care. Their housing facilities are also modified to fit one’s disability. Children are provided with free special needs education and they are helped to fit into society in any way possible.
One can rightly say that you cannot compare Uganda to Denmark. Considering the kind of support other governments give to people living with disabilities, the least our Government can do, with its meagre resources, is to provide a wheelchair to every person with a disability who needs it.
It is very common to find people with disabilities crawling on the streets because they cannot afford a wheelchair. This makes one wonder if the vulnerable members of society are cared for in Uganda.
It is the duty of the Government to take care of its vulnerable people in addition to protecting them and their property. This role should not only be left to NGOs. The NGOs should just supplement on what the Government has already initiated.
The recent proposal of giving monthly allowances to persons with disabilities and the elderly is a good start which should be implemented soon because it has been long overdue.
Parents of children with disabilities should be helped to raise these children with dignity. In the past, assistive devices were given out free of charge at Mulago Hospital. It is only fair that children with disabilities should be given free medical care at all levels of their health.
Since today is the International Day of People with Disabilities, government departments and ministries should go an extra mile to find out the exact number of people and children with disabilities in Uganda.
These numbers can help the Government to plan services for the people with disabilities and also to find out how best they can be helped individually.
Furthermore, government departments should be involved in preventing new cases of disabilities from happening.
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