CCD urges Ibeno HCDT to include persons with disabilities
The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has urged the Ibeno Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) to ensure that persons with disabilities benefit fully from its empowerment programmes, scholarships, employment opportunities and other development initiatives.
The Akwa Ibom State Coordinator of CCD, Mr Joseph Atang, made the appeal on Thursday during an advocacy visit to the Ibeno HCDT in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state.
Etim Ekpimah
The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has urged the Ibeno Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) to ensure that persons with disabilities benefit fully from its empowerment programmes, scholarships, employment opportunities and other development initiatives.
The Akwa Ibom State Coordinator of CCD, Mr Joseph Atang, made the appeal on Thursday during an advocacy visit to the Ibeno HCDT in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state.
Atang said the trust should adopt an inclusive approach that recognises the rights, needs and contributions of persons with disabilities, stressing that they should not be excluded from community development initiatives.
He urged the HCDT board to ensure that persons with disabilities from host communities could access its programmes and benefit from its interventions without discrimination.
He also advocated their participation in community consultations, needs assessments and other decision-making processes to ensure that development projects addressed their specific needs.
Atang said the Petroleum Industry Act provided a framework for developing oil-producing host communities through the establishment and operation of HCDTs, adding that persons with disabilities must not be overlooked in implementing the law.
“Our concern is to ensure that persons with disabilities, who are also members of these communities, are not overlooked in the implementation of the Act.
“Disability should not be a reason for exclusion from community development, employment opportunities, educational support, empowerment programmes or other benefits available through the HCDT,” he said.
The CCD coordinator stressed that a community development project could not be considered fully inclusive if persons with disabilities could not access or benefit from it.
In his response, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Ibeno HCDT, Mr Samuel Thomas, said the board had taken steps to support persons with disabilities, noting that one of them was a member of the board.
Thomas added that the trust had employed a person with disabilities as an accountant and that some members of the group had benefited from its empowerment programmes.
He said the board had also awarded scholarships to children and dependants of persons with disabilities and provided hearing aids to some beneficiaries.
“I will not call them persons with disabilities; I call them people with special abilities.
“We have done one or two things for them. Some have received scholarships, while others have benefited from our empowerment programmes. We have also procured and distributed hearing aids.
“About seven persons with disabilities have benefited from our empowerment scheme,” Thomas said.
The HCDT chairman, however, called on CCD to develop a comprehensive database of persons with disabilities in Ibeno to help the trust identify their needs and plan its interventions more effectively.
“For us to plan well and be able to reach out to everybody, we need to have a database,” he said.
Thomas also urged persons with disabilities in the community to remain united, work together and support one another.
He said the trust had empowered more than 500 indigenes of Ibeno, including persons with disabilities.
According to him, the board awards scholarships of up to ₦250,000 per academic session to undergraduates, while students with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.5 and above receive ₦400,000 to encourage academic excellence.
