The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in collaboration with the Abba Charity Foundation, has empowered over 100 youths and women living with disabilities in Delta State, with a commitment to ensuring their greater inclusion in its development programmes.
The empowerment programme, which was held in Asaba on Friday commemorated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and brought together beneficiaries drawn from the three senatorial districts of the state.
The initiative is part of the NDDC’s broader empowerment drive targeted at women, youths and vulnerable groups across the Niger Delta.
Speaking during the empowerment programme, the Director of Youth, Sports, Culture and Women Affairs at the NDDC, Mrs Ahunna Imoni, said the Commission was deliberately moving away from a charity-based approach to disability support towards inclusion and sustainable empowerment.
She said the programme was designed to send a clear message that persons living with disabilities were important stakeholders whose voices and contributions mattered in the development of the region.
According to her, “disability is not inability,” stressing that the NDDC would not support a development model in which any group is excluded.
“What the Board Chairman and the MD/CEO of NDDC are saying by this programme is that disability is not an inability. We are saying that we are moving from charity and pity to inclusion.
“We don’t want to run a region where people are excluded, any group. So we are including them in all that we are doing,” Imoni said.
She explained that the beneficiaries were drawn from the Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities and other disability groups, including lawyers living with disabilities.
Imoni said the current intervention was only the first step, noting that persons with disabilities would be given consideration in subsequent training and empowerment programmes organised by the Commission.
She disclosed that the NDDC had also employed some persons living with disabilities, including blind and physically challenged persons, as part of its commitment to inclusion.
The Project Coordinator of the Abba Charity Foundation, Rukayat Olowodola, said the programme was designed to promote inclusion, resilience, self-reliance and economic independence among persons living with disabilities.
She expressed appreciation to the NDDC Board and management for supporting the initiative, adding that development could only be meaningful when no individual or community is left behind.
The programme featured sessions on understanding disability and inclusion; skills for self-reliance and economic empowerment; as well as advocacy, leadership and community participation.
The first session, facilitated by the Chairperson of the NBA Lawyers with Disabilities Forum, Asaba, Patience Nkeonyeasua Etumadon, focused on the rights of persons with disabilities, inclusion and the significance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The second session, handled by a Chief Lecturer and Director of Consultancy Services at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Dr. Isioma S. Edozie, focused on vocational skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and income-generating opportunities.
The third session, facilitated by Dr. Felicia O. Momah, Senior Lecturer and Director of Academic Planning, University of Delta, Agbor, centred on advocacy, leadership and community participation.
In separate interviews, Patience Etumadon and Dr. Isioma Edozie said empowering a person with disability had multiplier effects because such a person could in turn support family members and contribute to community development.
They called for sustained interventions that would go beyond one-off financial assistance to include education, vocational training, employment and access to opportunities.
The beneficiaries expressed appreciation to the NDDC for the outreach, saying the initiative had restored their hope.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Jennifer Anyanwu, said the intervention had “put smiles on their faces” and reaffirmed that living with a disability has not diminished their ability to be productive, self-reliant and make meaningful contributions to society.
