According to Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, in Ethiopia, there are 1.2 million people with various types of disabilities; and 1.1 million elder peoples. Taking this number in to consideration and following the occurrence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), currently, the country has started taking new measures to protect these vulnerable groups from the virus.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, in collaboration with different charity organizations and volunteers has been undertaking various activities with greater commitment to minimize the exposure and vulnerability of these groups to COVID-19. Concurrently, it is working to save the lives of street people, and those engaged in begging as a means of livelihood.
Ergoge Tesfaye Labor and Social Affairs Minister said that based up on the country’s social protection policy to save street people, the Ministry signed an agreement with four nongovernmental, humanitarian organizations namely Mekedonian- Home for Elderly and Mentally Disabled People, Mekdim Humanitarian Association, KibreAragaweyan and Sedek.
She stressed that the Ministry signed the agreement with those humanitarian organizations to take off 3000 homeless people from the streets of Addis Ababa, Dessie, Adama and Harar cities at the first round and rehabilitate them.
She stated that women living on streets along with their babies and elderly people will be among the beneficiaries of the program.
Once they are lifted from the streets, the Ministry will work to improve their living conditions sustainably through arranging skill upgrading trainings and creating job opportunities in accordance with their level of capability, age and health conditions.
As to her, before they join the rehabilitation institutions, all of the people will stay for two weeks in quarantine center to ensure their health status- whether they contracted COVID-19 or not.
She noted that to rehabilitate the street people, mobilizing financial and non-financial materials, monitoring the process of rehabilitating the beneficiaries of the program as well as integrating them with the society is the future direction of the Ministry.
The activity of lifting citizens from streets will not be a onetime activity; but it will be carried out untiringly through the help of the World Bank and community participation. The Ministry set plan to lift 22,000 people who are living on the streets of 11 different cities and integrate them with their society. To this end, the Ministry is working in collaboration with the administration offices of the cities.
Most importantly, as elderly people and people with disabilities have special needs and easily impacted by various illnesses, they require additional support and care. The Ministry is working to properly utilize the 100 million Birr donation obtained from Prosperity Party. To this end, the Ministry signed agreement with the Ministry of Health to utilize the gained support for the purpose of saving vulnerable groups through fulfilling their basic needs and providing cleaning materials that enable to reduce COVID -19.
To properly distribute the money, the activity of identifying the needy people will be undertaken by the structures of the two ministries working in all states of the country and the two cities administrations, she explained.
According to her, the Ministry also provided three million Birr for three associations namely, Federation of Ethiopian People with Disabilities, National Association of People with Disabilities and National Elders Association to support the groups. She indicated that the support will be utilized for food consumption and to purchase cleaning materials.
Appreciating the effort of government to protect people with disabilities, Abayneh Gujo, General Director of Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of Persons with Disabilities, on his part said that as most of people with disabilities are poor and lead a miserable life, they are highly vulnerable to the virus. Hence, working to protect such group is not only necessary; but also mandatory.The Federation will work earnestly for the fair distribution of all the supports, he underscored.
The Ethiopian Herald April15/2020
BY TAMERU REGASA
