The Obuasi East District Assembly has presented assorted items and cash to 17 selected Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to empower them to be economically independent.
The items, which were procured from the three per cent allocated for PWDs from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) were handed over to the beneficiaries who had made specific requests to establish their own businesses at a brief ceremony.
They included deep freezers, fufu pounding machines, cosmetics and toiletries, water pumping machine, welding machines, bags of charcoal and maize, among others.
Madam Faustina Amissah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) who presented the items on behalf of the Assembly, said the allocation of the fund to PWDs was to cushion them against economic hardship as part of an inclusive governance.
She, therefore, admonished the beneficiaries to make effective use of the items to improve their living conditions, adding that a monitoring team would be deployed to check on the beneficiaries and how they were doing.
The DCE said the Assembly still had a backlog of applications which would be taking care of as and when funds were available.
Dr. Patrick Boakye Yiadom, the Member of Parliament (MP) said the rights of PWDs under the Constitution were protected just as any other Ghanaian and charged them to exercise their civic responsibilities in the democratic process.
He said the Constitution gave them the power to exercise their franchise by voting in national elections and present themselves for public office as citizens.
“I implore you to step forward and stand for elections especially the upcoming District Level Elections.
You have the power to contribute to decision making process so kindly exercise it,” he encouraged them.
Dr. Yiadom said the constituency had made considerable progress in terms of compliance with the constitutional provision for public facilities to be disability friendly.
Mr. Kwame Ankrah, President of the Obuasi Chapter of the Ghana Federation of the Disability Organisation, lauded the Assembly for its prompt disbursement of the fund.
