Provide for the differently-abled, says NGO

ACCESS to a number of public facilities is still a challenge for physically challenged persons in the tourist capital, says Livingstone Network for Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (LNOPD) says

LNOPD coordinator, Gorge Mizinga, said despite the government launching the National Policy on Disability in 2016, most buildings in the city such as hospitals, schools, courts and banks do not have rumps to aid the movement of persons with disabilities.

Mr Mizinga told the Daily Nation in Livingstone that lack of access to various facilities was preventing the development of physically challenged persons.

He added that there was a need for inclusiveness for physically challenged persons if they were to positively contribute to the social and economic development of the country.

Mr Mizinga said gone were the days when the physically challenged were side-lined in various issues of human endeavours.

He noted that 56 years after the country got its independence, some structures were still not favourable for physically challenged persons.

Livingstone City Council Public Relations Manager, Melvin Mukela, on the other hand, said the local authority had engaged owners of buildings to consider modifying their structure to accommodate the physically challenged.

Mr Mukela said council building inspectors were on the ground to advise all those constructing public institutions to ensure that there was a provision for rumps for those using wheel chairs.