By Staff Reporter
Children and adolescents with disabilities have raised their voices, highlighting key issues that affect them and demanding that authorities establish mechanisms to ensure their inclusion in development across societies.
This marginalized community often faces significant disadvantage due to being excluded from many programs.
Speaking at a children’s rights event in Harare, child rights advocate Tinashe Mugodhi urged the government and other stakeholders to actively involve this community in every decision-making process. This will allow for the development of solutions that truly address their needs and ensure their equal participation in society.
“Stakeholders should ensure the inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in budget making, policy making and decision making processes.
“Whenever we make decisions as institutions, let us begin to ask ourselves hard and honest questions like, how are children and adolescents with disabilities going to benefit, what are the likely impacts of our decisions and actions on children and adolescents with disabilities and indeed how can children and adolescents with disabilities are going to be included meaningfully,” Mugodhi said.
The children have demanded for stakeholders to work together to end illiteracy and to achieve Inclusion in health and rehabilitation services.
The children also advocated for early talent identification, nurturing, grooming and exposing such talents to Global Opportunities for financial and material gain.
