Rwanda is looking to start implementing new efforts for supporting persons with disabilities.

Mid last month, the country took part in the Global Disability Summit, a mechanism for collecting new, ambitious and widespread commitments which are critical to achieving change for persons with disabilities in the world.

During the event, Rwanda submitted 26 commitments, and it will be looking to soon start consultations with relevant stakeholders to devise ways for their realisation.

According to Emmanuel Ndayisaba, the Executive Secretary of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities in Rwanda (NCPD), the 26 commitments are mainly about better access to education, health services, employment for the persons with disability, and how they can be given assistance during tough situations like natural calamities or wars.

 "We made a number of commitments that we are looking to implement. They are many, because we are still behind compared to countries like the United Kingdom,” he said.

He noted that stakeholders including government institutions, organisations of persons with disability as well as international partners will be meeting soon to forge a way forward for the implementation.

Here, for example, regarding the education sector, they will discuss how to prepare teachers and school administrators to render services to persons with disability, what kind of tools are to be used and how they can be acquired, among other things.

"We put in place a coordination forum which connects us with the relevant stakeholders so that we can meet and talk about the problems that are there and their possible solutions. We have focal persons in government ministries and society civil organisations who can also support in this regard,” he said.

According to the 2021 population census, there are more than 446000 persons with disability in Rwanda.

Emile Vuningabo, the Program Coordinator of the National Union of Disability Organisations (NUDOR), an umbrella for about 30 organisations for persons with disability, said there are many challenges in the fields of health, education and employment.

 "The first challenge is health. Persons with disabilities struggle with access to health from a very young age. For instance, if a person needs an artificial limb, they have to travel from various parts of the country to Nyanza – Gatagara, because this is where their treatment is supported by the community based health insurance (mituelle),” he said.

He noted that when they fail to make it to Gatagara, they find it almost impossible to obtain the treatment elsewhere in Rwanda.

Such challenges end up affecting their education, employment and general livelihood, according to Vuningoma.

He appreciated that there is good progress in some fields, giving an example of the sign language dictionary that has been compiled and will possibly be used in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) to equip teachers with skills for teaching students with hearing impairments.

Omar Daair, the British High Commissioner to Rwanda, said his country will continue to work with Rwanda in promoting education for persons with disability.

The U.K is one of the key partners with Rwanda in this regard.

"We work together with the government of Rwanda to identify children with disabilities earlier so that they can get improved assistance in schools. That is in effort to try and ensure that we are keeping disabled students in education rather than dropping out. And I think that is something that we have worked on together and I hope that we will continue with that,” he said.

Professor Mthunzi Mdwaba, an immensely experienced South African labour expert and businessman who is running to become the Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) told The New Times that persons with disability need support and monitoring from governments to see that their rights are respected in regard to access to employment.

"Disabled people tend to suffer more in situations where there is limited infrastructure. Sometimes they can get jobs but cannot even access the building because there is no lift for them,” he said.

"All these things require that on the national level the governments provide the infrastructure, or monitor companies – both private and public to ensure that we cater for persons with disability,” he added.

He also noted that there is need for more efforts including laws that ensure that disabled people are not discriminated against, are given equal opportunities in education, access to jobs, as well as making sure that they can create their enterprises and make them sustainable and resilient.