This
was during an interface meeting for district leaders and the vulnerable group
leaders that took place on Labour Day 1st .may. 2013 at Kamwenge
District Headquarters in the education boardroom. Despite the down pour of
heavy rains that rained till mid day, this did not stop participants from
turning up in big numbers for the meeting. These included the District Chairperson
LCV who was represented by his vice, District Speaker, Subcounty Chief Ntara,
District Chairman for persons with disabilities, District Councilors Kamwenge Town
Council And Ntara Sub county Chairman Youth , Secretary For Social Services among
others.
In
his opening remarks, MR Bwambale Geoffrey the program officer Karambi Action
for life Improvement told participants to organize themselves in groups so as
to advocate for their rights and access government programs for equal
opportunities. Under the project; “ROEA104399 Enhancing civic competence to strengthen social accountability in 25
districts, 5 regions in Uganda”, RWECO conducted the Participatory Poverty
Assessment in 5 districts of: Kasese, Kabarole, Bundibugyo, Kamwenge and
Kyenjojo whose aim was to assess the
applicability of the national policy papers in achieving the social goals of
service delivery and launched the policy briefs in the region to share the
findings of the participatory assessment. Action point during the policy brief
launch was to cascade the policy briefs for the vulnerable groups to make
campaigns on issues that pertain to their livelihoods and service delivery.
Thus
RWECO in partnership with KALI have embarked on mobilizing the vulnerable
groups especially the PWD’s basing on the outcomes of the poverty assessment.
The joint annual campaigns with district vulnerable groups on poverty
eradication and service delivery monitoring
in Kamwenge district follows a training of leaders of vulnerable groups
that was conducted in march 2013.
The
Purpose of the Joint Campaigns with Vulnerable groups was to interface with
Local government leaders and bring the plight of the poor vulnerable groups on
the policy agenda and to mobilize and rally support of the district leaders for
increasing budgets to vulnerable groups with specific focus PWD’s and SNE in the district.
Issues raised by the participants
Mr. Sam
mugisha the chairman of Kamwenge district advocacy group for PWD’s and other
vulnerable groups presented a concept note which advocated for equal opportunities,
data on PWD’S and meetings with other development partners at the different levels,
in his presentation he cited out challenges faced by PWD’s as;
§ Neglect of PWD’s in policy
formulation and implementation
§ Lack of empowerment and advocacy
strategy in place to enable the vulnerable to voice out their issues
§ Ignorance of the disabled they are
not aware of their rights
§ Low budget allocation for the PWD’s
and the youths
§ Inaccessibility of the allocated
funds especially the youths
Addition
to the above, He said, Disability is not inability” citing
out examples of PWD’s who have excelled in their career despite of being disabled,
District speaker kayunga,woman Mp Koboko and the Head Of ICT Department Uganda Martyrs
University Mbarara Campus.
Action points agreed upon during
the meeting;
§ Advocating for the implementation
of different articles and laws that promote the plight of people with
disabilities and other marginalized groups
§ Sensitization of PWD’s to
participate in budgeting, planning and resource allocations at different levels
of local government.
§ Follow up on budget performance for
the allocated funds to the PWD’s in a given financial year
§ Lobby and advocate for user
friendly pavements on all public places
§ Identifying and funding talented
PWD’s
§ Creating a rehabilitation center
for PWD’s and orphans
§ Conducting integrated meetings
between PWD’s and development partners on a quarterly basis
§ Support the building of a
rehabilitation and resource center for PWD”s
Tibimpama
Rovence the Vice Chairperson LCV who represented the District chairman in her
remarks promised the involvement of people with disabilities and other
vulnerable groups in decision making forum such as budget formulation and
policy advocacy for special considerations. She thanked RWECO/KALI for
reawakening awareness campaign on policy advocacy for the vulnerable persons.
Radio talk show programme
To
sum up everything the meeting ended up with a radio talk show at Voice of
Kamwenge where the District Speaker, District Councilor People With
Disabilities And The Chairman Advocacy For Vulnerable Groups In Kamwenge
District discussed the outcomes of the meeting and sensitized the entire
district to rally and support PWD’s at their different capacities.
