Anambra: Group moves to sponsor, empower physically challenged women

The Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), weekend, announced plan to launch a skill acquisition programme for its female members in Anambra State under “operation one woman, one skill”.

According to the state Chairman of the association, Comrade Ugochukwu Okeke, under the scheme, every woman living with disability whether working working class, jobless or student would be trained for free and provided with necessary resources and supervision to grow the business or skill.

Okeke, who stated this at Awka, during inauguration of women wing of JONAPWD called Association of Anambra State Women with Disabilities (AASWoWD), explained that objectives of the programme was to make women with disabilities self reliant, employers of labour and able to contribute positively to development of any society where they found themselves.

“With inauguration of this women wing, we will launch one woman, one skill programme for all our members. I encourage you to bring more women with disabilities on board because there are a lot to gain. We don’t want to see people begging for alms on the street again.

“You all have skills. You have potentials. Tell us what you can do or what you want to do. We will sponsor you, train you, give you capital to start and supervise you to make sure you succeed in the business and employ others,” he added.

Contributing, Mrs Eucharia Aniekwe, who represented the Anambra State Disability Rights Commission, and the representative of Anambra State Civil Society Network, Mrs Tina Igbasi, said they would support every programme and action geared towards uplifting the women with disabilities, as well as encouraged them to study and understand the Anambra State Disability Rights Law.

Earlier, the woman leader, Association of Anambra State Women with Disabilities (AASWoWD), Comrade Ncheta Nwanokwara, said the group came into existence to stop all forms of discrimination against women with disabilities, including negative attitudes of the society against them with regards to marriage and employment.