By Teboho Serutla
The Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFD) is bidding for its members to be included in Covid-19 national response and recovery initiatives, to ensure their full participation in social, education and healthcare sectors.
In the three-issue papers availed to the media this week, the federation said the key message from the three documents was the “the need to leave no one behind in the Covid-19 national response and recovery.”
It said it would conduct a series of distribution sessions in Lesotho’s 10 districts to share messages on the social, education and the health care sectors on how the pandemic has negatively impacted on the disabled persons.
“In terms of education, learners with disabilities, report that they could not access online teaching and learning formats; learners with disabilities could not learn from home due to lack of educational technological devices which are not available at home and parents and caregivers found it hard to support children with disabilities at home,” the federation said.
It further said that persons with disabilities could not access social protection as they could not access information and communication on such protection due to loss of jobs by families with people living with disabilities.
According to the federation that led to loss of income during lockdowns resulting in deepening inequalities already existing between persons with disabilities and their non-disabled counterparts in relation to poverty reduction.
As for the healthcare it said its members did not receive public healthcare Covid-19 related messages in accessible formats “thereby increasing the risk of being exposed to the Covid-19 and the health workers were not trained on accommodating patients with disabilities.
In collaboration with the United Nations Resident Coordinators office, Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD) has produced an issue of three papers on inclusive education, access to health and social protection COVID-19 processes along with communication materials.
The three papers were issued in collaboration with the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s office and were meant to influence participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities in Covid-19 decisions.
The executive director of LNFOD, Nkhasi Sefuthi said persons with disability have been disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of COVID-19, owing to “lack of participation and inclusion” in mitigating against the virus.
