Unite to serve persons with disabilities—Teveta
Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training Authority (Teveta) has asked organisations working towards protecting the rights of people with disabilities in Mzuzu to work under one umbrella body.
Teveta assistant training programmes specialist Orbot Gondwe said this on Friday when Citizen Impact Organisation called for a stakeholders meeting to analyse the post-Covid-19 impact for persons with disabilities in the city.
He said: “As Teveta, we have observed that institutions that stand for people with disabilities are scattered and working without proper channels. Everyone wishes to work on their own.
“This has made it difficult for us to offer various skills to them because we always aspire to work with a group and scrutinise their challenges and ambitions.”
Mzuzu Disability Forum secretary Malizgani Gondwe, whose organisation is under Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (Fedoma), pledged to work with other organisations.
“It is true that if we work in associations, we use collective strength whenever we ask for different interventions from people of goodwill. We will liaise with our sister organisations to start working with Fedoma so that people with disabilities get recognition in Malawi,” he said.
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute regional manager (North) Mwawi Makwakwa bemoaned the absence of data which they can use when they want to reach out to persons with disabilities with services.
Citizen Impact Organisation board chairperson Augustine Harawa said they want to promote the rights of persons with disabilities in Malawi.
“We noted that they face a lot of challenges and the interventions were not inclusive. We need to always consider them in our programmes,” he said.
Other organisations that attended the meeting include National Economic Empowerment Fund, Malawi Council for the Handicapped, Mzuzu Disability Welfare and Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi.
