BY ALOIS VINGA
The Communities of Practice in Disability Advocacy for Mainstreaming in Zimbabwe (COPDAM) has made a call for public policy stakeholders to consider the concerns of the people living with disabilities.
COPDAM is a continental disability policy implementation strategy that aims to build the capacity of national, regional and continental disability federations to negotiate and advocate for disability mainstreaming in all sectors of government.
The body also works to give technical support to improve the capacity of the African Union and national governments on how to include disability in their plans.
Addressing member organisations at a function held to commemorate the national epilepsy week In Zimbabwe the COPDAM Country Director, Ellisa Ravengai explained that there was an urgent need for the government to implement a meaningful special needs education policy to cater for all disabled student needs.
“The education curriculum also needs to be inclusive especially at teacher training level. To date there is no adequate training at higher and tertiary levels to cater for the disabled for instance the universities in Zimbabwe cannot offer most of the programmes to the deaf and blind which then results in poor education attainment levels for the disabled,” said Ravengai.
The disabled persons act must also be realigned to the new constitution; such effort will be futile if disabled women are not promoted to higher offices like their able bodied counterparts.
Fighting HIV has also been difficult since the National Aids Council Disability Board Member’s composition is not reflective of the nation’s disability fabric’’
Speaking at the same occasion the National Disability Board Member, Taurai Kadzviti noted, ‘The general representation of the disabled in both parliament and senate is not reflective since only two senators are representing over one million disabled people.
