By Amadou Jadama
The secretary general of the Gambia Federation for the Disabled, Lamin Manneh has called on government to consider giving them a share of the Covid-19 funds.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday, Lamin Manneh who is also the founder of the National Organization for Disabled and Orphans, said: “I believe persons with disability should be on top of the list of any group supposed to have bail out. There is a bailout for tourism and entertainment sectors, the media but up to date, there is no bailout for persons with disability.”
Manneh called on the relevant authorities to quickly revisit their decision on Covid bailouts and stop discriminating persons with disabilities.
“What I expect the government to do is to recognise that there are vulnerable people in the society who are very capable but are handicapped by one form of disability or the other and we believe by helping them, together, they can make a difference. They cannot go without us, and we cannot go without them and let them be aware that it us today, it might be them tomorrow,” Manneh advised.
He revealed that there are about 4000 people with disabilities who are struggling daily to make ends meet. “We have families to feed, school fees to pay and house rents to pay and instead of helping us, the government is marginalizing us,” Manneh lamented.
