Gov`t to scale up support for people with disabilities

The government is set to hold a countrywide identification exercise of persons with disabilities so that programmes to benefit them can be drawn.Emmanuel Ndayisaba, the Executive Secretary of the National Council ofPersons with Disabilities (NCPD), said Monday that after a week long retreat with various stakeholders, decisions will be taken on how best the exercise can be implemented effectively.“We will not only consider numbers, but also the nature of disability one has in order to categorize them since support will be provided basing on one`s category,” said Ndayisaba.The categories depend on degree of disability and inability to carry out economic activities to earn a living.Ndayisaba explained that it was very challenging for the government to come-up with effective support programmes without establishing the support people need.He explained that although the Ministry of Health carried out an exercise in 2010 that put the figure of People Living With Disabilities (PLWD) at 522,856, the officer noted that there was need to update figure.“The exercise will get facts or data right from the lowest administrative unit and we intend to use labour with enough skills like those from Rwanda Demobilization Reintegration Commission (RDRC),” he said.RDRC has already carried out the exercise that identified ex-combatants before they were categorized.Jean Sayinzoga, the chairman of RDRC, said although the exercise will involve ex-combatants, they will not benefit from the support programmes. Ex-combatants have a special support fund the government set aside for them.“There is a monthly financial benefit that the government extends to ex-combatants depending on their categories,” Sayinzoga said.In addition to constructing houses for those in the first and second category, they also get Rwf 50,000 and 35,000, respectively, every month. Those in the third and fourth category get Rwf 25,000 and 20,000 respectively. All in the four categories also get a free healthinsurance and benefit from skills development.RDRC records indicate that there are over 2,570 ex-combatants benefiting from government support.