A new effort to improve the livelihoods of people living with disabilities is underway, with a particular focus geared at placing such persons in coffee washing stations across the country to help tackle the unemployment challenge.

The new initiative will be jointly implemented by the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through the National Agricultural Export Board (NAEB).

The move is in response to concerns about growing unemployment among persons with disabilities.

Speaking at a one-day seminar on ways to integrate disabled persons into business in Kigali, last week, Ryutaro Murotani, the senior representative and deputy head of office at JICA, said the effort is primarily designed to support persons with disabilities (PWDs), especially the youth. 

The seminar dwelt on ways to make inclusive business a tool to improve the economy and matching coffee washing stations and institutions advocating or PWD’s.

Officials from NAEB, JICA and NCPD as well as representatives of disabled persons and coffee washing stations were present.  

Previously, JICA and NCPD found job placements for students with hearing impairment from Huye School of Inclusion in Huye mountain coffee industry.

"The priority is to inculcate a mindset change among members of the public, there is need to embrace the fact that persons with disabilities are just as good in business,” Ryutaro said.

According to figures from NAEB, there are about 400,000 coffee farmers and 268 coffee washing stations in the country.

"We want to offer jobs to all kinds of people, including persons with disabilities, in partnership with JICA and industry captains,” said Pontien Munyangira, who is in charge of coffee department at NAEB. 

Emmanuel Ndayisaba, the NCPD executive secretary, said persons with disabilities in the country would be helped to form cooperatives to ease efforts to support them.

"We came up with this initiative after realising that a big number of persons with disabilities are unemployed. Through different employment initiatives like ‘Kora-wigire’-National Employment Programme (NEP), and other actors, we are thinking of even more strategies to integrate disabled youths in the industry. We have started with coffee washing stations and will encourage other businesses to come on board” Ndayisaba said.

He called on the tea industry to follow suit and employ youth with disabilities to help uplift their financial status. 

Ndayisaba said they first approached ‘Huye mountain coffee company’ for job placements and their efforts have since paid off. 

The youth learned how coffee is processed from plantation to the final product for sale, Ndayisaba noted, adding that the initiative also helped reduce stigma and discrimination against disabled persons.

Yet, despite efforts by government to improve the welfare of persons with disabilities, problems still abound, he warned. "We ask the government to continue backing this initiative that seeks to improve the livelihoods of disabled persons,” he noted.

Speaking to The New Times, Vital Murabukirwa, a physically impaired person and representative of ‘Twiyubake Gatori’ association of persons with disabilities in Eastern Province, cited access to prosthetic limbs and unemployment among their main challenges.

However, Murabukirwa said they are looking to the future with hope.

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