By Pemphero Malimba :
President Lazarus Chakwera has challenged public and private sector players to address gaps that hinder people with disability from accessing services in the country.
Chakwera said this Wednesday during the launch of this year’s Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (Macoda) Flag Week.
Activities marking the launch took place at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
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He observed that people with disabilities continued facing challenges to access health, education and other services.
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“I call upon all institutions and organisations in the country, whether they are in the public or private sector, to accept the challenge of identifying all the parts of their service delivery that are not disability inclusive and make plans to close this gap,” he said.
He said lack of consideration of disability inclusivity remains a problem in the country.
“The lack of consideration of disability inclusivity in the design of public spaces is a common problem in our country, and it is not a problem that will go away by itself. It requires taking decisive action and making corrections to the design of these spaces to demonstrate that we take disability rights and inclusivity [issues] seriously,” he said.
Chakwera expressed commitment to ensuring that public buildings are disability friendly.
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“It is my intent to ensure that all public buildings in the country are disability inclusive by 2030. We have to look at our entire approach to service delivery, from hospitals to schools and everything in between, to ensure that it is disability inclusive,” he said.
During the launch, Chakwera donated K2 million towards the Macoda Flag Week initiative.
He also unveiled the brand of Macoda, which has transitioned from the-then Malawi Council for the Handicapped.
On his part, Macoda Board Chairperson Alex Dzinkambani appealed for more funding towards the organisation’s operations.
Dzinkambani said people with disabilities continued facing challenges to access education and reproductive health services and seek job opportunities.
“We are requesting for additional funding as we want to have additional staff such as legal practitioners and researchers, more vehicles and motorcycles so that our officers should be able to move around the country to provide services,”Dzinkambani said.
He, however, expressed optimism that with the current laws, most challenges that people with disabilities have been facing would be minimised.
“The Macoda Act of 2024 has given us powers to regulate services towards persons with disabilities. As such, we have power to monitor all organisations that are providing services to persons with disabilities in Malawi and also make people comply with what is in the law.
“If you breach what is in the law, Macoda has powers to take you to court. So, these powers are going to help us to ensure that all persons with disabilities in the country are enjoying their rights,” he said.
In her remarks, Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Minister Jean Sendeza said her ministry was geared to ensure effective operations of Macoda.
“The challenges that were stated have been taken care of. We will be going into the review of the budget as Parliament is meeting. The Minister of Finance [Simplex Chithyola Banda] is already engaged and he is aware of these challenges and has promised that he will prioritise some of the challenges that have been highlighted by the chairperson of Macoda.
“Not all of them will be taken on board at once but he will prioritise what is really needed for now,” Sendeza said.
The week is observed annually to raise awareness on disability rights and raise funds for people with disabilities.
This year, the week is being observed under the theme ‘Empowering Disability Rights: Paving The Way for An Inclusive Malawi Towards Malawi 2063’.
