By Mama A. Touray
Survivors of road accidents have called on The Gambia government to give them support in both kind and cash as they explained their challenges during the commemorated international day for road traffic crash.
Jarrai Jabbi, one of the survivors told The Voice that: “government and other philanthropists should know that we are also alive because a physically challenged person needs only help let them remember us and the challenges we encountered. Today if you want to look for accommodation to rent and they find out that you are on a wheelchair, they will say how will you be able to pay my house rent.”
Meanwhile, she narrated how she sustained her injuries from a road accident, saying “my condition is as a result of road traffic accident and since then I found myself sitting in this wheelchair I did everything in this wheelchair from childhood to date.’’
“To sit in wheelchair in The Gambia is not an easy thing, if you have an errand to run or somewhere to go and or want to board a taxi, it is only few drivers will get down of their cars to help you get in. Some others among the drivers regard it as waste of time and if you don’t have money to pay “town trip” you can’t meet that your errand,” she said.
Jarrai went on to say that the challenges she encountered from childhood to date is too much which among is discrimination.
According to her, when they visited the hospital, they need to be given special attention but some of the nurses will tell them “go and sit there.” “We should be treated with special care as we are different from other people, government and philanthropists should come to our aid in term of paying the school fees of our children as we want them to learn so that they can get us out of the condition we found ourselves.”
Musa Bajan, also a survivor of road traffic accident explained his ordeal stating that he is a mechanic and he got to his present condition through his profession as he got an accident