PRESS RELEASE
SLUDI Assesses President Bio’s First Year In His 2ND Term
The Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI) has made a public assessment on the findings of President Bio’s one year of his second term in office. This event took place on the 29th August 2024, at the SLUDI headquarter Black 11, Approved school, wellington.
SLUDI President Santigie Kargbo, together with his executive members evaluated the policies, programs, and initiatives of President Bio’ government to facilitate inclusion and support for Persons with Disability (PWDs) through the National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPD) and the Ministry of Social Welfare (MoSW).
He highlighted the success in President Bio one years in office. Presdent santige stated that, MoSW, with support from UNDP, continues to review the PWDs Act of 2011 in fulfilment of SLUDI’s 2023 recommendations with regards the draft bill that was to be tabled in parliament last year.
He also made mention that, the Ministry has also advanced disability inclusion at international level through a side event it organized at the UN Plaza in New York during the 17th session of the Conference of State Parties to the UNCRPD, focusing on the protection and empowerment of women and girls with disabilities in June 2024.
MoSW again launched its five-year strategic plan with a special focus on empowering persons with disabilities and providing social security for the most vulnerable.
NCPD collaborated with the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ) to train journalists on disability reporting.
NCPD also conducted training sessions on climate change mitigation measures for youths and women with disabilities, as impact of climate change are mostly felt by persons with disabilities.
NCPD supported three Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPDs) with NLe48,000 to empower their livelihood skills.
NCPD is currently collecting professional certificates from persons with disabilities to seek employment for them.
He also affirmed that The Chief Minister of Sierra Leone has urged MDAs to do disability inclusion budgeting for the year 2025 and the Ministry of Finance provided subvention to keep NCPD operational.
Both MoSW and NCPD continue to maintain and gain donor confidence.
The National Rehabilitation Centre of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation provided mobility aid/assistive devices for persons with disabilities (physically challenged) for free of cost.
Furthermore, the president of the union reaffirmed their challenges, despite these successes, SLUDI wants to draw the government’s attention to some of the challenges we recorded: he also made mention of the Free Health Care initiative for PWDs does not provide medications after medical prescription. This contravenes section 17 of the PWD Act 2011.
– Public tertiary institutions have levied extra charges on students with disabilities in tertiary institutions, creating heavy financial burden on them and their parents. This violates Section 14 (1) of the Persons with Disability Act of 2011 and Section 10(4) of the Education Act of 2004.
Despite an accessibility audit report launched by NCPD, many public buildings remain inaccessible to PWDs, and this continues to hinder inclusion and active participation of PWDs in governance.
He further stated that NCPD continues to get small and irregular disbursement of subvention from Ministry of Finance. This affects its effective and efficient operations.
More Consultations on the PWD Act review process are still needed.
While acknowledging President Bio’s effort in fostering disability inclusion and the strides made by NCPD and MoSW, President Santigie Kargbo of SLUDI emphasizes the need for proactive measures to resolve the identified challenges to make PWDs enjoy their rights captured in the PWDs act of 2011.
President santigie also stated that SLUDI recognizes the appointment of Mr. Vandy Konneh as the chairperson of NCPD. We believe that he has the required experience as he has already served as a board member between 2012 and 2018 representing SLUDI at NCPD, and has been in disability advocacy for the past 20 years.
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Secretary to the President – Statehouse
Chief Minister – Office of the President
Minister – Ministry of Social Welfare
Deputy Minister – Ministry of Social Welfare
Permanent Secretary – Ministry of Social Welfare
Baindu Dassama – Adviser to President on Social Welfare
Executive Director – Human Rights Defenders Network.
National Coordinator – Office of National Secretary
Chairperson – Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone
Chairperson – Sierra Leone Peace Commission
Chairperson – National Elections Watch
Chairperson – National Commission for Democracy.
UN Resident Coordinator – UN country Team
Head of mission – UNDP
Head of mission – UNFPA
Country Director – Humanity and Inclusion
Country Director – Sight Savers
Chief Commissioner – Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone
The Ambassador – American Embassy
The ambassador – British High Commission
The Ambassador – Republic of China
The Ambassador – Irish Embassy
Executive Director – Mental Health Coalition
Executive Director – CARL
President – Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ)
The Electronic and Print media
All OPDs
