Caption: Foundation
CEO Beatrice Mahuru shaking hands with CDS MD Bernard Ayieko after signing the
MoU.
By MATTHEW VARI
DIGICEL PNG Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday with the Cheshire Disability Services (CDS), formerly Cheshire Homes, will see it extend its support to the CDS’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Program for 2016.
The foundation has supported the program since 2013 with K484,000 invested in the work of the organisation.
Under the foundations focus area of Services for People With Special Needs, Digicel PNG Foundation CEO Beatrice Mahuru said the CBR program said the CBR program has been the aim of the foundation to address the issue for PWDs in accessing rehabilitation services.
“People living with a disability have always been the truly marginalised sectors of our community because it has always been put in the ‘too-hard basket’,” Mahuru said.
“So we had the good fortune of aligning with the Cheshire Disability Services to work in this space, and we are only, through our partnership and this program, finding those people within the communities and the wonderful thing is Cheshire is designing assistance for those specific needs.”
“Whereas previous everybody had to come to the center which had center based rehabilitation and through the program it is now a community based rehabilitation- so it is taking their services out to the villages, settlements, doing based lined assessments.”
Mahuru praised the Cheshire team led by General Manager (GM) Bernard Ayieko and the partnership that has produced success stories for disabled persons taking part in the program.
“All the cases that we have managed to put in our portfolio of stories of impact would not be possible without this partnership.”
“I thank the team as it takes a special person to work in this space which is a challenging one at that.”
“Our investment in the community based rehabilitation program to date has been K484,000 since our first program in 2012. For us it is an investment because we believe strongly in giving everybody an equal opportunity.”
Cheshire GM Bernard Ayieko said with the change in the focus of the Cheshire Homes from a static location to one that now delivers rehabilitation and special education services into communities around the nation’s capital and surrounding communities.
“We are now using the word Cheshire Disability Services as opposed to Cheshire Homes. One reason is that we are no longer looking at keeping people in the home.”
“It is now within Human Rights demand that everyone is supposed to live together with their families and it is the rights of everyone else that we take care of each other including the government of the day.”
“That does not mean that we are doing away with the current setting of residential care that we have but we are trying to find a way to integrate them back into the community for those ones whose families are there.”
Ayieko said that the CBR programs is tailor made to empower People With Disabilities (PWDs) so they are able to be independent and to participate in a number of things including employment.
No comments:
Post a Comment