By Sirrah Touray
The Ecowas Commission has kicked off the third phase of its regional programme to provide assistive devices for children with disabilities, opening an advocacy and sensitisation workshop in The Gambia this week.
The initiative now targets The Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea, following earlier rollouts in Togo, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, and Sierra Leone.
Dr A’lmada Jorge, Ecowas Principal Programme Officer for Social Welfare, said the programme is central to Ecowas support for children with disabilities. He commended the Government of The Gambia for its “consistent programme on inclusion of people with disability” and praised Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare Fatou Kinteh for her “dedication and responsibility towards the general problems that face people with disability in their struggles for social and professional inclusion.”
He said 15% of the global population — about 1 billion people — live with disability. “Africa accounts for at least 80 million, with West Africa home to roughly 50 million. In The Gambia, approximately 9% of people aged 15 and older have a disability. Globally, an estimated 240 million children live with disability.”
“Stigma and discrimination are major causes of social and professional non-inclusion of people with disability,” he said.
Ecowas adopted its Regional Plan for Inclusion of People with Disability in West Africa in 2024 to push member states to implement laws and policies under Ecowas Vision 2050.
“Today, we start with The Gambia and we are going to Senegal and Guinea. This is the third phase of this project,” Dr Jorge said. He said the effort aligns with Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Muhammed Krubally, President of the Gambia Federation of the Disabled, called the launch “another significant milestone in the history of persons with disabilities in The Gambia, but specifically for children with disabilities.”
Ecowas is working with persons with disabilities and stakeholders to identify children, assess needs, and deliver assistive devices to “enhance their performance in schools in order to achieve their desire, which is education.”
Access to devices, he said, will let children “compete with their counterparts in classrooms” and ensure “these vulnerable children with disabilities are not left out in any form and manner.”
“Children with disabilities form the integral part of society whose affairs need not be taken lightly,” Krubally said. “They represent the future of any country.”
He added: “Most children with disabilities do not go to school because they are being judged on the basis of their disabilities — that it would be worthless or useless to take them to school.”
Alagie Barra, Director of Social Welfare at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, said the initiative lands “at a critical time when our collective commitment to inclusivity, equity and social justice must translate into tangible outcomes for children with disability.”
“Access to appropriate assistive devices is not merely a service. It is a fundamental enabler of dignity, independence, participation and equal opportunity for children to realise their full potential,” Barra said.
He noted that The Gambia’s Persons with Disabilities Act 2021 provides a comprehensive legal foundation for safeguarding rights, welfare, and inclusion. “Yet, children still face multiple barriers, including limited access to assistive technologies, undermining education, mobility, communication, and wellbeing.”
Lamin Manneh, a person with disability, said empowering children with devices and accessible environments “is a very good thing.” He thanked Ecowas leaders and policymakers “for being there for every sector of human life, more particularly persons with disability.”
