Government starts registering PWDs for national IDs
UGANDA – The government of Uganda has kicked off the registration of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to get national Identification cards (IDs) to enable them benefit from the Parish Development Model (PDM), social assistance grants for empowerment and Emyooga.
The registration commenced on Monday 14th February 2022 and is scheduled to run for two weeks according to the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). It will end on 28th February 2022.
According to Katto Gabriel Maguru, the national Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), a national identity card will make it easy for them to benefit from special national grants for PWDs among others.
“All PWDs without national identity cards are requested to move to the designated participating sub-counties in their respective districts to take advantage of this open opportunity,” Maguru said.
He advised their chairpersons to endeavor to mobilize the PWDs fraternity to go for the registration to get the important lifetime document.
According to the Uganda Registration Bureau of Statistics report of 2016, 12.4% of Uganda’s population live with some form of disability reflecting 4.5 million people.
Countrywide, only 0.5% of the PWDs have national identification cards which means the greater percentage don’t have, making it uneasy to access government services.
But according to the Chairperson of Lira district and City disabled persons, Matthew Omara Okello, they have a population of 60,707 and are expecting a greater number of them to register.
“The importance of national identification is not a subject for discussion at the moment, therefore every disabled person should get it,” Maguru said.
Omara said, a good number of persons with disabilities missed out on government projects and programs such as national special grants for disabled persons because of lack of IDs.
“Within this period, we hope to register more than 30,000, especially adults,” Omara said.
Omara urged caretakers of persons with disabilities and the public to give all the necessary support to the PWDs so that they get IDs.
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