#PROJECT#DAP
#PROJECT#DAP – “The Disabled Are People Too” is community development service project of Busaosowo Osowoodarunae Bisong under the auspices of his foundation, the Busaosowo Foundation. The Busaosowo Foundation is a non-government organization poised with the objective of effectively responding to the issues affecting youths, families and national development through projects, interventions, initiatives and campaigns. It is in furtherance of the above objective that the foundation has launched its first initiative called: “#PROJECT#DAP” in Kebbi State as our kick off state.
Global statistics show that there are over one billion people in the world today living with one form of disability or the other. In Nigeria alone, they are over 25 million People With Disabilities (PWD) making a total of about 15% of the entire population. This is no small population. While we cannot deny that more and more advocacy is been carried out in the international scene for PWDs, it is sad to observe that one of the greatest problems still confronting PWDs is the absence of social acceptance. Disability in Nigeria is still mostly viewed as a curse and PWDs are greeted with pity most times. This has contributed to the absence of or low participation in the national development process by Persons With Disabilities. Having identified the lack of social acceptance as a major problem especially here in our kick off state, public enlightenments, campaigns, informed policies and mass education of PWDs is key to their full integration into the Nigerian society and this is the target of #PROJECT#DAP.
In 2006, the National Population Commission placed the statistics of persons living with disabilities in Kebbi State to be 72,556 ranging from visual, hearing, audio, intellectual, physical and other impairments. Twelve years after 2006, one can only imagine how far this number has grown. In an interview with ``#PROJECT#DAP``, Mr.Abdullahi Aliyu Usman,the State Chairperson of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities categorized the problems of PWDs into:
Society
Family
Government
Islamic scholars
SOCIETY: According to him, the general notion about persons with disabilities in Kebbi State is that they cannot be independent. Anyone who has excelled in the state with disability had to break out from the social norm. It is believed by many in the state that PWDs are created by Allah to beg. A walk through the streets even in the state capital will not reveal anything to the contrary. It is therefore naturally expected that if you have any disability, you should beg. This social reaction has left many PWDs in deplorable conditions. The begging syndrome in the state doesn’t only affect the PWDs but also those close to them. When a PWD goes out to beg whether old or young, he or she is never alone. He is accompanied by a younger person usually children, teenagers or young adults. The practice of begging is carried out almost as a trade. Very early in the morning, they are outside. This will imply that the young children and teenagers that lead their parents, friends or relative to beg do not go to school. They beg along from morning till night. Some of these young children are as young as 3-5yrs. In Kebbi State, the weather is very harsh. When it is hot, it is extreme and so it is when it is cold, breezy or dusty. These are the condition these young children are subjected to as they lead older persons to beg.
FAMILIES: The family remains the most vital unit of any society. The basic and first morals and virtues are formed at home. A child will most likely not abandon what he/she is taught at home. In the state, it has been observed that parents are in the habit of sending out children with disabilities to beg since it is the general notion that they are created to be beggars. Even when parents of such children are confronted by organizations like JONAPWD, some parents are not willing to change. Two cases are worthy of note at this point.
Two teenage girls (with disabilities) who were sent by their parents from another local government area to the state capital were intercepted by the JONAPWD chairperson and questioned why they were out begging. He was told by the girls that they were sent to the capital to by their parents to beg. The disheartening thing about this story was that one of the girl’s mothers was a trader at the capital’s main market. Efforts were made to reach her mother at the market. When this was achieved, her mother insisted that the child had to beg and that if the child is prevented from begging in the capital, they will beg somewhere else.
Speaking in an interview with #PROJECT#DAP, the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association,Lawal Hudu Garba Esq told his story of how his grandmother advised his father to send him into the streets when at the age of 4,he was diagnosed with polio unable to walk without the aid of crutches. His father rejected the advice given by his grandmother and sent him to school. His mother (Lawal’s biological mother) refused him to be idle and engage him normal house chores. Mr.Hudu is now married and working with the state ministry of Justice.
Unless parents of children living disabilities rise in defence of the dreams and aspirations of their children, the society abounds with people who want them doing nothing.
GOVERNMENT: Like in many other part of the country, the government respond more to the plight of persons with disabilities by giving them charity in eatable forms. It is my humble view that nobody becomes a fisherman by eating fish. He must first learn how to fish and then be given a fish line or hook to go out by himself for a catch. Charity in the form above does no good at all. Sadly too is the fact that these charities mostly come in festive seasons and religious celebrations. It is our desire and recommendation that more attention should be paid on the educational and vocational empowerment of PWDs and their children. On another level, It is the complaint by the JONAPWD that their members are not fully represented in the government. The Chairperson of JONAPWD stated in our interview on KBTV that every local government has a female councillor but the case is not so for PWDs.
ISLAMIC SCHOLARS: The role of any cleric is to instruct in doctrine on behalf of the religion he represents. It is largely believed that begging is propagated in Islam. Our findings revealed that the Islam doesn’t encourage begging unless in extreme cases of hunger or when a person is stranded in a strange land and this should not be repeated. However, it has been submitted that the scholars have not always spoken out on these issues. In an environment like Kebbi State where scholars and clerics are highly respected, their words hold power.
ORIENTATION AND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: No matter how much a man has inside of him, without the right mindset, he will not live out his potentials. That is why orientation and awareness campaign is our strongest strategy. If we get PWDs to believe in themselves and in their ability to carve a niche for themselves in this world like many are doing, olnly then can we say we are making progress. Our campaigns begun in the Kebbi State School of Special Needs where #PROJECT#DAP is offering self-development coaching to the students there in academic excellence, career choice, road safety, hygiene etc. We moved a step further by starting a TV Show at Kebbi State Television where issues affecting PWDs are discussed. We have also held a public seminar for PWDs on attaining self-reliance in the face of disability. We had as guest speaker, a senior Muslim cleric, Imam Isma’il Chindo. We will collaborate with clerics, scholars and traditional rulers to help us achieve this objective.
SKILL ACQUISITION: We also intend to embark on skill acquisition and vocational training in the final phase of the project especially for those who by age cannot be in schools and empowerment them financially to begin a business in the skill they have acquired. We understand that sometimes when PWDs are empowered with either finances or equipment for trade, they sell them and return to begging. To prevent this from happening, we will be training and empowering only those who have shown a great deal of commitment to the orientation by attending meetings and seminars. We will also set a local monitoring team within the PWDs community that will ensure that whoever receives support is acting within the terms of empowerment. As part of efforts to achieve this, we will be conducting business management classes for all who will be supported before the support is released to them.
Our target is to empower 200 PWDs within Kebbi State with #100,000 each. Part of the sum will be used to buy the needed implement of trade and the remainder will be used to secure a business location for the trade.
Our total budget for this is #20,000,000 (Twenty million Naira). For easy monitoring, the empowerment will be in five phases.
You can donate to this project in cash or kind. We will be glad to receive from you equipment like:
Sewing machines and materials for tailoring
Filing machines for leather work
Clippers for barbing
Agricultural seeds for farming
Ovens and gas cylinder for catering.
Tel : 09038632847
Facebook: projectdap
Instagram: projectdap
Blog: bofinitiatives.blogspot.com
MANY THANKS!!!!
BUSAOSOWO BISONG ESQ.
PROJECT COORDINATOR
MAY,2018.
#PROJECT#DAP – “The Disabled Are People Too” is community development service project of Busaosowo Osowoodarunae Bisong under the auspices of his foundation, the Busaosowo Foundation. The Busaosowo Foundation is a non-government organization poised with the objective of effectively responding to the issues affecting youths, families and national development through projects, interventions, initiatives and campaigns. It is in furtherance of the above objective that the foundation has launched its first initiative called: “#PROJECT#DAP” in Kebbi State as our kick off state.
Global statistics show that there are over one billion people in the world today living with one form of disability or the other. In Nigeria alone, they are over 25 million People With Disabilities (PWD) making a total of about 15% of the entire population. This is no small population. While we cannot deny that more and more advocacy is been carried out in the international scene for PWDs, it is sad to observe that one of the greatest problems still confronting PWDs is the absence of social acceptance. Disability in Nigeria is still mostly viewed as a curse and PWDs are greeted with pity most times. This has contributed to the absence of or low participation in the national development process by Persons With Disabilities. Having identified the lack of social acceptance as a major problem especially here in our kick off state, public enlightenments, campaigns, informed policies and mass education of PWDs is key to their full integration into the Nigerian society and this is the target of #PROJECT#DAP.
In 2006, the National Population Commission placed the statistics of persons living with disabilities in Kebbi State to be 72,556 ranging from visual, hearing, audio, intellectual, physical and other impairments. Twelve years after 2006, one can only imagine how far this number has grown. In an interview with ``#PROJECT#DAP``, Mr.Abdullahi Aliyu Usman,the State Chairperson of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities categorized the problems of PWDs into:
Society
Family
Government
Islamic scholars
SOCIETY: According to him, the general notion about persons with disabilities in Kebbi State is that they cannot be independent. Anyone who has excelled in the state with disability had to break out from the social norm. It is believed by many in the state that PWDs are created by Allah to beg. A walk through the streets even in the state capital will not reveal anything to the contrary. It is therefore naturally expected that if you have any disability, you should beg. This social reaction has left many PWDs in deplorable conditions. The begging syndrome in the state doesn’t only affect the PWDs but also those close to them. When a PWD goes out to beg whether old or young, he or she is never alone. He is accompanied by a younger person usually children, teenagers or young adults. The practice of begging is carried out almost as a trade. Very early in the morning, they are outside. This will imply that the young children and teenagers that lead their parents, friends or relative to beg do not go to school. They beg along from morning till night. Some of these young children are as young as 3-5yrs. In Kebbi State, the weather is very harsh. When it is hot, it is extreme and so it is when it is cold, breezy or dusty. These are the condition these young children are subjected to as they lead older persons to beg.
FAMILIES: The family remains the most vital unit of any society. The basic and first morals and virtues are formed at home. A child will most likely not abandon what he/she is taught at home. In the state, it has been observed that parents are in the habit of sending out children with disabilities to beg since it is the general notion that they are created to be beggars. Even when parents of such children are confronted by organizations like JONAPWD, some parents are not willing to change. Two cases are worthy of note at this point.
Two teenage girls (with disabilities) who were sent by their parents from another local government area to the state capital were intercepted by the JONAPWD chairperson and questioned why they were out begging. He was told by the girls that they were sent to the capital to by their parents to beg. The disheartening thing about this story was that one of the girl’s mothers was a trader at the capital’s main market. Efforts were made to reach her mother at the market. When this was achieved, her mother insisted that the child had to beg and that if the child is prevented from begging in the capital, they will beg somewhere else.
Speaking in an interview with #PROJECT#DAP, the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association,Lawal Hudu Garba Esq told his story of how his grandmother advised his father to send him into the streets when at the age of 4,he was diagnosed with polio unable to walk without the aid of crutches. His father rejected the advice given by his grandmother and sent him to school. His mother (Lawal’s biological mother) refused him to be idle and engage him normal house chores. Mr.Hudu is now married and working with the state ministry of Justice.
Unless parents of children living disabilities rise in defence of the dreams and aspirations of their children, the society abounds with people who want them doing nothing.
GOVERNMENT: Like in many other part of the country, the government respond more to the plight of persons with disabilities by giving them charity in eatable forms. It is my humble view that nobody becomes a fisherman by eating fish. He must first learn how to fish and then be given a fish line or hook to go out by himself for a catch. Charity in the form above does no good at all. Sadly too is the fact that these charities mostly come in festive seasons and religious celebrations. It is our desire and recommendation that more attention should be paid on the educational and vocational empowerment of PWDs and their children. On another level, It is the complaint by the JONAPWD that their members are not fully represented in the government. The Chairperson of JONAPWD stated in our interview on KBTV that every local government has a female councillor but the case is not so for PWDs.
ISLAMIC SCHOLARS: The role of any cleric is to instruct in doctrine on behalf of the religion he represents. It is largely believed that begging is propagated in Islam. Our findings revealed that the Islam doesn’t encourage begging unless in extreme cases of hunger or when a person is stranded in a strange land and this should not be repeated. However, it has been submitted that the scholars have not always spoken out on these issues. In an environment like Kebbi State where scholars and clerics are highly respected, their words hold power.
ORIENTATION AND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: No matter how much a man has inside of him, without the right mindset, he will not live out his potentials. That is why orientation and awareness campaign is our strongest strategy. If we get PWDs to believe in themselves and in their ability to carve a niche for themselves in this world like many are doing, olnly then can we say we are making progress. Our campaigns begun in the Kebbi State School of Special Needs where #PROJECT#DAP is offering self-development coaching to the students there in academic excellence, career choice, road safety, hygiene etc. We moved a step further by starting a TV Show at Kebbi State Television where issues affecting PWDs are discussed. We have also held a public seminar for PWDs on attaining self-reliance in the face of disability. We had as guest speaker, a senior Muslim cleric, Imam Isma’il Chindo. We will collaborate with clerics, scholars and traditional rulers to help us achieve this objective.
SKILL ACQUISITION: We also intend to embark on skill acquisition and vocational training in the final phase of the project especially for those who by age cannot be in schools and empowerment them financially to begin a business in the skill they have acquired. We understand that sometimes when PWDs are empowered with either finances or equipment for trade, they sell them and return to begging. To prevent this from happening, we will be training and empowering only those who have shown a great deal of commitment to the orientation by attending meetings and seminars. We will also set a local monitoring team within the PWDs community that will ensure that whoever receives support is acting within the terms of empowerment. As part of efforts to achieve this, we will be conducting business management classes for all who will be supported before the support is released to them.
Our target is to empower 200 PWDs within Kebbi State with #100,000 each. Part of the sum will be used to buy the needed implement of trade and the remainder will be used to secure a business location for the trade.
Our total budget for this is #20,000,000 (Twenty million Naira). For easy monitoring, the empowerment will be in five phases.
You can donate to this project in cash or kind. We will be glad to receive from you equipment like:
Sewing machines and materials for tailoring
Filing machines for leather work
Clippers for barbing
Agricultural seeds for farming
Ovens and gas cylinder for catering.
Tel : 09038632847
Facebook: projectdap
Instagram: projectdap
Blog: bofinitiatives.blogspot.com
MANY THANKS!!!!
BUSAOSOWO BISONG ESQ.
PROJECT COORDINATOR
MAY,2018.
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