The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has called for more expansion of the covid -19 palliatives in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna State to include more People’s Living with Disabilities (PWDs).
The Centre made the call on Thursday in a press briefing organised online tagged “A Rapid Assessment of the Effectiveness of government covid-19 Communication and Palliatives Distribution Strategies”
Mr. David O. Anyaele, the executive director of CCD, while briefing the press in Lagos through the online meeting said the centre designed the survey in other to access the effectiveness of the palliatives model five states which include Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna And Akwa Ibom respectively.
Anyaele said while the survey showed there was excellent awareness on the COVID-19 and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) among the PWDs, most information on the COVID-19 Pandemic were obtained from the TV , radio, Faith based organisation in the five states.
The report also revealed that the method used in the distribution of palliatives wasn’t friendly for the PWDs.
Furthermore the centre made recommendations as follows;
1- IEC Strategies that are sensitive to the blind, deaf and physically challenged Should be adopted to educate PWDs, they should be trained and involved in delivering the information to them through:
a-Braille for the blind
b-Sign Language interpreters for the deaf and
c- Bold prints for persons with albinism
2-Provision should be made for the screening of PWDs for COVID-19 so that those infected can benefit from the treatment by the government.
3- Identify and train trainers and support them with necessary logistics to step down training to members of their community or Cluster.
4-Improvement in the Palliatives Distribution by the inclusion of PWDs in the Process.
5- Improvement in the process of communication to the beneficiaries of palliatives by involving the local PWD leaders Leaders in the process .
6-There is Need to re-design the administrative components of the COVID-19 Palliatives Support scheme with a view to effectively covering more PWDs as beneficiaries before they are compelled to adopt survival behaviours that are capable of undermining government efforts at controlling spread of the disease , Which might be costlier.
CCD as an NGO for the PWDs has been in collaboration with the UKAID, ActionAid in the Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C) in Nigeria.
