Reverend Stanley Mensah, Deputy General Overseer of the Charismatic Evangelistic Ministry (CEM) has called on government to build facilities that support disabled persons.
He said the existence of such institutions in Ghana will not only help make them independent, but will also help harness their abilities to enable them to contribute to the nation’s development
Rev. Mensah said this in an interview after his church organized an event to provide medical care to thousands of persons living with disability within the Accra metropolis and beyond.
“I do not think that government has an idea about the state of disability in the country,” he said, adding that CEM’s decision to fete and attend to the medical needs of disabled persons in Accra alone was an eye opener to the extent of disability in the country.
Rev. Mensah said his church saw a similar thing being done in London some years ago and they decided to replicate it in Ghana.
Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Initiator of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy used the opportunity to talk to the pastor about cerebral palsy.
She said: “Cerebral Palsy is the single and most diffuse disability in children,” and urged the church to extend support to families with cerebral palsy children, especially those in rural areas.
Mrs Awadzi also called for data and accurate statistics on cerebral palsy in Ghana to enable the government to know the extent to which it affects families and also affect policy formulation.
Ghana remains in dire need of institutions supporting disabled persons especially children to enhance their lives, she added