From; Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
The Entrepreneurial Action in Us (ENACTUS), Kaduna Polytechnic Team, has equipped 150 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with self-sustaining skills, to enable them to fend for themselves and their families.
The Team Lead, Mr. Silas Akertyo, stated this in Kaduna on Thursday, during a trade fair organized for the PWDs to showcase their products to the public to boost patronage.
Akertyo said that the PWDs were trained on tailoring, cane crafting shoe making, and local chairs, under the ENACTUS Ability in Disability (AID) project.
He added that the trade fare was also organized to improve the PWDs’ product visibility, which in the long run would increase sales.
He said that the effort was in line with the ENACTUS program’s belief in creating a sustainable world where everyone could live a dignified life, irrespective of socio-cultural, physical, or individual differences.
The Team Lead explained that ENACTUS was the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to creating a better world through social innovations and business principles.
He explained that banditry activities in the southern part of Kaduna state have increased the number of PWDs in the area, while men, youth women, and children were displaced and lost their means of livelihood.
He said that to create a sustainable solution to the problem, the ENACTUS team carried out a head count of PWDs and needs assessment across internally displaced persons camps in the state.
“The assessment, which was carried out in partnership with the management of the Kaduna State Rehabilitation Centre, Kakuri, showed that 90 percent of the PWDs do not have self-reliant skills.
“Some of the PWDs were marginalized, neglected, and abandoned due to their disability.
“This is why we saw the need to create a social enterprise for the PWDs, as a way of empowering them with the needed skills to be self-reliance and live a life of dignity,” he said.
The Manager of the rehabilitation center, Malam Auwal Shu’aibu, thanked the ENACTUS team for empowering PWDs with sustainable means of income.
Shu”aibu said that the state government was doing the best it could, to support the PWDs to live a normal life.
He, however, said that the government cannot do it alone, and as such, needs all the support it can get from relevant stakeholders to improve the quality of life of PWDs in communities.
