Tubmanburg, Bomi County – Across Bomi County, people living with disability (PWD) have many issues that continue to impact them negatively in their communities. The problems are enormous. it includes inaccessibility to their physical environments to negative attitudes of people towards them.
Report By: Ibrahim Sesay In Tubmanburg, Bomi County
Several people, including advocates humanitarian organizations, and human rights groups are working to remedy the situation. Amid these existing and emerging problems, there is gradual progress being made in some areas such as inclusion into decision-making at the county level, giving them the space to speak on issues affecting them but with greater improvement needed.
While others see disability as a major tragedy, some PWDs remain optimistic and still tailor their lives as mentioned by Stephen Hawking, “concentrate on the abilities, your disability doesn’t hinder and don’t dwell on the things it interferes with. Be disabled physically not in spirit.”
One person who dares to challenge his disability and is making his life productive is Mr. Boka Powell.
Mr. Powell lives in Tubmanburg with his wife and young daughter in a small apartment given to him by Father Gareth Jenkins, a Catholic Priest.
Powell, also known by his popular name Pa Boka, is a very resourceful and productive man despite his physical challenge.
“The time I was in school those days, though I didn’t go far I didn’t learn any trade in school, I just got in the junior high and I dropped out due to financial strength, so the war came, and I went to Ivory Coast and from Ivory Coast to Ghana,” he recounted.
He claims that he reads and writes considerably and there’s no need to further his secondary education because he has aged and decided to acquire skills at a vocational program to cater to his family.
“I am getting old, and I thought I would become a family man so I should take a trade, I decided to do so that I will be able to help my family. When I know my trade, I will be able to pass it on and leave a legacy for the future,” he said.
Having specialized in making all kinds of bread, he wants to continue baking as a source of livelihood. He’s now pleading with people of goodwill to assist him improve his bakery business.
Although Mr. Powell has distinguished himself as a Person Living with Disability, he expressed genuine concerns about the welfare and well-being of PWDs in Bomi County.
“They don’t have the mind to be on the street corners begging for handouts to survive but they are suffering. They are not getting the money so easily because they spent the entire day in the hot sun to get money for food,” he said, adding, “Some of the people their living conditions in the houses they stay in are not very good, so I pray, I am asking the caucus of Bomi, the president of Liberia to come to our aid,” he said.
Similar concerns have been re-echoed by the human rights officer of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR) assigned in Bomi, Mr. Christopher Johnson.
Johnson is concerned about the dignity of PWDs and their children. He wants the government to aid PWDs.
“I think about their human dignity, I think the national government needs to come and aid them. Imagine the child or children of physically challenged person is not in school is a human rights issue and it breeds poverty,” he said.
“You know the man is physically challenged and financially incapacitated at the end of the day, he takes the child around and they will have something to survive on.”
