Highlighting the COVID-19 response project by the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations

The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations on Tuesday 28th July 2020 participated in a press conference at the Alisa Hotel in Accra - Ghana organized by the STAR-Ghana Foundation to engage the media on COVID-19 activities carried out by some selected civil society groups.

The Federation with support from STAR-Ghana in April 2020 commenced a COVID-19 response project aimed at increasing and improving access to accurate, timely, inclusive, and relevant information on Covid-19, and response actions by the government. The aim of the federation was to also support communities, NGOs, and other citizens’ groups to develop and implement initiatives at local and national levels for supporting persons and the implementation of national and local response plans.
The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations is a 9 member organization but this project focused on five out of the nine organizations that is the Ghana Blind Union, Mental Health Society of Ghana, Ghana National Association of the Deaf, Inclusion Ghana (an organization of persons with intellectual disability) and Sharecare Ghana (an organization of persons with autoimmune and neurological disorders).

The Federation is currently implementing activities such as :
  Developing, printing and disseminating of 10,000 COVID 19 information materials including video in accessible formats
  A social media campaign
  Engagement with the media houses across the country to air disability inclusive awareness programs and also getting some of these media houses to bring on board the services of sign language interpreters in the programs especially their news because that is where a lot of information on the coronavirus is shared
  Monitoring government support programs for PWDs across the country.
  Developing and advocating the adoption of COVID-19 Response Support Package (RSP) for PWDs and guidelines for disability inclusion in government’s response to COVID-19.

The federation has been able to achieve notable feats during this coronavirus pandemic such as the Inclusion of sign language interpreters in the Ministry of Information’s engagement with the general public and the COVID-19 Presidential address by His Excellency the President Nana Akufo-Addo. Another notable success to be recognised is the role of the Federation to facilitate the application of persons with disability who had businesses that suffered a downturn due to the coronavirus to sign up for the support packages from the National Board for Small Scale Industries and after a meeting with the executive director of NBSSI, persons with disability who applied for the support packages will be prioritized.

A key focus in implementing this project was the Integration of Gender & Social Inclusion. Member Organisations engaged with parents and caregivers especially mothers of persons with disabilities and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) as well as Autoimmune and neurological diseases on relevant information and key messages from experiences during the lockdown and entire pandemic period, for the development of IEC materials.

Due to the restrictions in movement, information sharing happened by sharing documents related to the projects and other relevant information through organizational WhatsApp platforms, emails, and phone calls. The implementing organizations made sure their IEC materials targeted their specific group of PWDs, they either came in large/bold prints, audio files, and sign language interpreted videos and relatable graphics.

GFD looks forward to more disability targeted activities that will provide more support and relief for persons with disability in this era of the coronavirus.