Companies urged to employ PWDs

Ms Rachael Florence Appoh, Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection (GCSP), has urged public and private institutions to offer employment opportunities to persons living with disability (PWDs).

She said PWDs, with requisite competences, were the right kind of human resource needed by every organization that seeks to maximize production or profit.

Ms Appoh said this when she paid a working visit to some special schools in the Greater Accra Region on Thursday.

She alluded that in the development countries, employers prepared their PWDs who had the requisite knowledge and skills, to work in their various organizations and institutions.

“This is because PWDs are very effective at their places of work and do not move about during working hours,” she stressed.

The deputy minister urged employers to look at talents, creativity and skills of the person, rather than concentrating largely on their physical ability.

“The holistic use of human capital is very important for the development of our country,” she said.

Ms Appoh condemned the discrimination being suffered by the PWDs, especially those with the requisite employable skills, from employers and their relatives.

She also expressed disgust at parents who only preferred their able-bodied children to go to school at the expense of the child with disability.

Ms Appoh disclosed that the Ministry of GCSP had put in place mechanisms to train hospital social workers to communicate effectively with the hearing-impaired to access healthcare.

The deputy minister urged the PWDs to take their studies and training serious, to enable them to fit into the society happily.