MBABANE - There is an increase in the number of persons living with disabilities.
In Swaziland, an estimated 95 000 people are living with disabilities, whilst some of them are not known because they were kept out of the public eye.

To address this problem, Cheshire Homes Swaziland has initiated the Young Voices project, which is aimed at equipping young people with disabilities with skills to hold their governments accountable for the implementation of the UN Convention and local policies and legislations.

Cheshire Homes Administrator Makhosazana Hlatshwayo said the project was actually run in 27 countries that have Cheshire Homes.
Hlatshwayo said to achieve their goals, they had mobilised the media to work on partnership, whereby they could actually educate the nation about disabilities.

She said some of the major issues to be highlighted were advocating for the sign language to become the third official language in the country as a result of lack of communication for the people who are deaf. She said a number of deaf people are abused because they could be hardly understood, yet with sign language becoming an official language, it could minimise their chances of being abused.
Another issue of importance was the free education and access to buildings which do not cater for people with disabilities.

The issue of transport is another concern, with some buses refusing disabled persons to board them. Hlatshwayo alleged that disabled people were further called names by conductors, who at times charge them extra money for their wheelchairs.

On another note, Hlatshwayo said they were also in a process of empowering Members of Parliament on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons Living With Disabilities, companies and individuals in general, because of the ever increasing statistics of persons living with disabilities.

“In 1994, an estimate of 17 persons living with disabilities was reflected, whilst in 2003 which is a recent statistics, it shows that the numbers have hiked to 30 per cent,” lamented Hlatshwayo. She said the project indeed needed support from the identified stakeholders.