PWDs urge govt to ring-fence their 10 percent share of PDM funds

LIRA- As the Parish Development Model [PDM] rolls out in the country, persons living with disabilities [ PWDs ] in the Lango Sub-region have urged the government to strictly ring-fence the 10 percent funds allocated to this category of the beneficiaries.

They state that they, as PWDs, cannot favourably compete with those who are not physically handicapped and strong and are able to do things fast.

Under PDM, the government has allocated 30 percent of the funds to women, 30 for youth, 10 to PWDs, 10 for the elderly and 20 percent to groups belonging to men and others that don’t fall in the special categories.

The money for the PWDs and the elderly persons, according to the minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Betty Amongi, will be re-allocated to another category if the two categories did exhaust it as wanted.

Mathew Omara, the Chairperson of PWDs in Lira district, said he has noticed that out of the groups registered in the sub-counties in the Lango sub-region, PWD groups are missing.

The Govt has earmarked at least Shs 1trillion for the PDM. The money will be shared among the 10,594 parishes across the country starting this financial year 2022/2023 in which some money has been disbursed.

The widely popularised programme intends to extend Shs 100mln every year to each of the parish SACCOs for organised beneficiary groups to borrow at 6 percent per annum.

The programme also emphasises more on approaches to increase production, processing, marketing, infrastructures, social services, financial inclusion, economic services, and mindset change amongst the citizens.

“First of all, the money allocated to us, is too little and we want to advise the government not to temper and divert it,” said Omara.

His concern followed a comment from Peter Emuna, a representative of PWDs in Oyam district.

During the community mobilisation and mindset change organised by State Minister for Gender, Charles Okello Engola, Emuna brought the meeting to a standstill when he said the disabled persons are being sidelined.

“Out of the groups we have, there is no single disabled group. This a clear indication that the disabled are being blocked even from this meeting,” Emuna said.

https://thecooperator.news/sensitise-communities-on-pdm-minister-urges-local-leaders/

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