By Lanre Oloyede
As part of measures to bring succor to the vulnerables and less privileged in the society, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan, over 500 Persons With Disabilities from Karon-majigi community, today benefitted from the distribution of food packages by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities, Comrade Mohammed Abba Isa.
According to comrade Abba Isa, the food distribution, which was done in partnership with Near Foundation, an NGO with focus on hunger, water and education relief, was aimed at putting smile on the faces of Persons With Disabilities.
Speaking with journalists at the event, Senior Presidential aide stated that the essence of the distribution was in fulfillment of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which is all about eradicating poverty, giving hope to the hopeless and the vulnerable group who are largely Persons With Disabilities.
The SSAP noted that this pilot phase of the distribution which targeted about 500 households who are vulnerables and less privileged is expected to be expanded to other 36 states of the federation.
He added that in addition to distribution of food packages, the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities and the Near Foundation will soon provide boreholes in the community in order to ease the people’s access to potable water.
“This is just a tip of what we have been doing for the less privileged since we came into office. We are planning to decentralize it by going to the local government areas to reach the unreachable.
As far as my office is concerned, we are going to go a long way to make sure that we execute projects in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If you look at the four thematic areas: Water, education and health and poverty reduction. To achieve this, my office is calling for more collaboration, we cannot do it alone. We call on development partners to key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu.
Speaking on the implementation of the National Disability law, the Presidential aide said there is need to invest in creating awareness on the law in order to stop discrimination against PWDs in the country.
Comrade Abba Isa maintained that there’s a lot of potentials in PWDs to contribute to national development if only they can be given chance to showcase their talents.
He called on government and stakeholders to join hands to provide enabling environment for PWDs to exhibit their potentialities.
On his part, the Project Coordinator of Near Foundation, Mr Abdulmalik Bulako, noted that the passion to put smiles on the face of the less privileged was the drive behind the partnership with the office of the SSAP to provide the food packages.
Mr Bulako said this is just the flag off exercise as more of this intervention should be expected in near future.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Mariam Abdulazeez, expressed happiness with the way thr packages were distributed without any hassle or stress.
She thanked the SSAP Comrade Abba Isa and Near Foundation for bringing succor to them particularly in this period of fasting.
Another beneficiary, Ahmad Abu Amina, said: “The experience is so nice, we are so happy with what we have witnessed here. You can see everyone is rejoicing. We really appreciate what the government and the foundation have done to us.
“We need government to do more of this because of the current economic situation in the country so that our people can live better lives.
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