The disabled persons cooperatives in Busia Uganda and Busia Kenya county have agreed to work together in order to address the common challenges they face.
The PWDS from the two countries reiterated their commitment during a function held at Madibira primary school in Busia town.
Peter Opoto of the national council of people with disability Busia Kenya County said, if they must succeed they have to cooperate because their challenges have no boundaries.
Opoto said forging a way of moving forward as a group and not as Kenya or Ugandan was the only solution.
He vowed that PWDS in Kenya will encourage their counterparts in Uganda to do whatever is done so that they can improve their conditions of livings.
Aramathan Kakembo the male councilor for PWDS Busia municipality asked the council increase funding to disabled persons to enable them engage in production.
He said, shilling four million allocated to the PWD activities in Busia municipality was insufficient to fund the ten groups of disabled persons and under their umbrella Busia municipal disabled people’s cooperative.
Kakembo also asked the authorities to intervene in a conflict over a piece of land measuring two and half acres given to disabled persons in Busia but it has been municipality grabbed and registered as a company by their former leaders.
The PWDS also decried lack of special schools and teachers to handle the blind, deaf children and purported harassment of PWD traders by the enforcement personnel of Uganda revenues authority (URA)
He appealed to government to support their cooperative through micro finance support center so that they access loans at lower interest rates to engage in income generating activities to attain the middle income status 2021.
The Busia municipality mayor Hassan Bwire Opio advised the disabled persons to stop fighting each and direct all their efforts towards embracing government programmes to improve their welfare.
He promised to do whatever it takes to give security and give back the grabbed PWDs.
