By Adama Makasuba
Adama Jammeh, chairperson of Gambia Association of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Banjul branch, has blamed the government for neglecting people with disability and as well refusing to give the association annual subventions.
Speaking to The Voice exclusively, Ms Jammeh expressed dismay saying she and her colleagues are neglected for years by the government, as she detailed how they missed a beauty pageant competition in Tanzania over lacks of travelling funds.
“For many years, we’ve been neglected and we’ve not been supported by the government and I think I am free now to inform the people about this neglect,” Ms Jammeh said.
“We were invited to travel to Tanzania and compete with other African countries and even Senegal sent four of their deaf females likewise Sierra Leone, and three of us Gambians were invited but none of us was supported by the government. When the invitation letter came in, we wrote to ministries, departments and councils but none of the request was accepted or granted. And we wanted to participate in this competition because this was not the first time of us being invited,” she added.
According to her, the association wrote letter to Office of the President and Office of the First Lady, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, National Centre for Arts and Culture, National Youth Council and many other institutions, but that “we were told they don’t have money to support us.”
“And now persons with disability are aligned to the Gender Ministry, so if we have an opportunity to travel, they should support us. To me, I think this is discrimination. They are discriminating us because we see people travelling outside this country attending sporting events and other activities and when it reaches out to the government, the government supports them.
“We realised that when we send letters to some ministries, they hide them. And we are also Gambians and we are paying tax. We need to also have share of the national cake. Even when it comes to appointment of persons with disabilities we have not been considered, we have only person at the National Assembly and we need more persons with disabilities in the National Asembly,” she expressed.
