GrassRoots Hub, an innovation and incubation hub in the Bono region, located behind the GNAT Hall, focused on impacting lives by training and empowering the youth, women and the less represented groups within the Bono region.
The Hub, through the partnership with iSpace Foundation, the UkAid and its partners have rolled out the Grassroots Special Ability Project, under Gender Awareness Program- GAP, designed to achieve diversity and inclusion- where the marginalized in society can access fairness, equity and equality.
On 11th March 2022, GrassRoots Hub, the implementing organization launched the first phase of the project under the theme: Addressing the Bottlenecks for Progressives Society: Perspectives from the Marginalized.
The first phase trained five (5) persons with hearing impairment and ten (10) physically challenged members of the Associations of Person with Disability, Sunyani on the Disability Act, and United Nations (UN) Declaration on Disability.
The 11th March training focused on equipping participants with advocacy skills that will enable them to access their social and economic rights, thereby achieving the ultimate goal of inclusiveness and diversity.
The Grassroots Special Ability project that falls under the direct purview of GrassRoots Hub is part of its strategies of curbing discrimination among minority groups.
Speaking at the training session, the project lead for the Grassroots Special Ability project, Robert Kwasi Oppong, explained the rationale behind designing the project in two phases.
‘’We are glad about this project; the first phase will in total equip 15 physically challenged persons with advocacy skills that will enable them to seamlessly access duty bearers who man various organizations that superintend over their economic rights,’’ Robert Oppong stated.
He further noted that the training has set the pace for the participants to know and understand how they can approach duty bearers to demand what is due them.
Meanwhile, the second phase, which is due on 17th March 2022, will feature a dialogue session involving PWDs and duty bearers.
The dialogues session will ensure a face-to-face engagement between duty bearers whose mandate, affects PWDs directly and indirectly.
It is wealthy to note that all the duty bearers that will be engaged are at the express request of the leadership of the Association of Persons with Disability (PWD) Sunyani, including Ghana Police Service, Regional Coordinating Council, GPRTU, Ghana Education Service and the Traditional Council.
When asked about the criteria for settling on these duty bearers, Mad Mahamudu Sirina, President of the Association, pointed out existing discriminations meted out to them by society. She opined that meeting representatives from these selected institutions will be crucial in mitigating the myths and discriminations they continuously endure.
She was however grateful to GrassRoots Hub for lunching the GrassRoots Hub Special Ability.
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