The Ghana Blind Union (GBU), the union responsible for advocacy and rehabilitation of blind and partially sighted persons in society, has bemoaned being left out of the coronavirus intervention goodies and packages distributed by government.
Government, through the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has embarked on food items distribution to support the needy and less privileged in society during the partial lockdown, an exercise from which the GBU said it was side-lined.
According to the Executive Director-GBU, Dr. Peter Obeng-Asamoa, most of its members rely on people’s support to move around because they cannot see; and during the COVID-19 lockdown they were stuck indoors as no one was available to assist them – hence their missing out on the goods, with some of them not even aware that goodies were being distributed.
“Not long ago when we had the lockdown and food was being distributed, the blind could not participate in that because we didn’t even hear about it; by the time we got to know the distribution exercise was over, and so we want government to know that the GBU exists and needs assistance for its members,” he stated.
Speaking during a donation exercise by ACEP of braille sensitisation materials to the union, he further indicated that enforcement of the social distancing policy has crippled the businesses of blind people who sell water or engage in petty trading on the streets.
“As persons with disability, everything that we do during this COVID-19 period is doubled; because if I want to convince someone to take me out, I have to buy two face masks, hand sanitisers and gloves (one for me, one for him),” he said.
He added that there has not been any targetted support from government toward persons with blindness, even though they have presented their list of needs to government.
He emphasised that persons with blindness urgently require education and sensitisation materials to be able to keep up-to-date with issues happening around the corona pandemic, since the models of learning for the blind are far different from those of the ordinary person.
In terms of post COVID-19 and the way forward, he called on government to invest more in technology that will help people living with blindness also – so that in terms of crises they will not be left out of accessing information when other means cannot be accessed.
