Mr. Kojo Acquah (right) presenting a cheque to one of the beneficiaries
MUNICIPAL CHIEF Executive for the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly (EKMA), Kojo Acquah, has presented equipment to some 21 Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the municipality to support their business operations.
This is intended to discourage PWDs from begging along the streets of EKMA.
According to Mr. Acquah, the government has been supporting PwDs with working tools to help generate incomes for themselves.
The items included deep freezers, standing and hand dryers, tonging and pedicure machines, bags of rice, gallons of oil, assorted materials and tools as well as assorted provisions, among others.
Some of the beneficiaries also received cheques to settle some school fees.
The MCE explained that previously, the monies were disbursed to beneficiaries in cash, however, that did not really help since the PWDs returned to the streets after sometime.
“It was to this effect that the government now deems it more appropriate to provide a livelihood to persons with disability through the provision of working tools or capital for any business of their convenience,” he explained.
The MCE advised the beneficiaries to make absolute use of the items to generate income for their daily expenses, and appealed to the other PwDs in the area to register with the Department of Social Welfare to benefit in future.
The Municipal Director of Department of Social Welfare, Florence Owusua Parry, noted that it was the ninth time the assembly was supporting the PWDs.
She said the monitoring exercise conducted by the department revealed that some of the beneficiaries were not using the items to empower themselves, adding that monitoring of beneficiaries would be carried out to ascertain their level of improvement.
She, therefore, charged them to put the items to good use to enhance themselves.
FROM Emmanuel Opoku, Effia