Disabled people plead for help

By PAJAMES A
GUMUNO
Mt Giluwe Disabled Association chairman Lekson Iki wants the government to subsidise medical cost and air transport for the people living with disabilities.
Iki, from Tambul district, Western Highlands, said last Friday that given the high cost of living, “disabled people find it very hard to survive”.
He said their immediate family members were no longer helping them because they had their own children and needs to worry about.
He said disabled people found it hard to start income-generating activities.
Iki said many of them had children but found it difficult to send them to school.
He said when they were sick and sought medication at hospitals, they were told to pay normal medical fees like able people.
He said many disabled people were eager to travel to other provinces by air but found the cost of airfares too expensive.
Iki said the disabled had become like forgotten people in the country where no one seemed interested in their needs.
He said with the country’s economy booming, the government could afford to subsidise medical costs, airfares and establish resource centres in
each province where people with disabilities could receive training on starting small
projects in their community to generate incomes.
He thanked the government for providing free education from next year.
Iki, a father of three, said next year, he would send his children to school.
He said disabled people needed money to start small income generation projects but banks were reluctant to give them loans.
Iki said it was not fair as disabled people were being treated as second-class people.
He said it would be good if the government could allocate money through the National Development Bank for disabled people.
Iki said it was not good to see disabled people standing on the streets in the cities and towns begging.