By Ragan M. Conteh

The Director of Hope for the Blind Sierra Leone organization, Abubakarr Kamara, says “everyone is prone to being disabled.”

He was speaking during a program held at the Bamoi Hotel, Aberdeen in Freetown.

Kamara said the issues of disabilities have never been addressed by authorities in government circles.

He said disabled people could do better in terms of delivering leadership qualities in any public and private offices.

He stressed that most of the organizations have failed to employ the disabled, a situation he describes as total neglect.

He maintained that the government and private institutions are not doing nothing in terms of including disabled persons in the decision making processes.

Director Kamara said that even the policy formulation for persons with disabilities are prepared by the abled persons leaving the disabled.

“The disabled should be part of any policy formulation, so by abandoning us as disabled in making our voices heard is a waste of time, ” he said.

He stressed on the need to have a friendly “disability talk desk” in every sector of government as well as in all private institutions.

He said at local governance there is total negligence of disabled persons.

He catalogued the needs of the disabled persons as he spoked about the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in accessing public institutions.

He called for a proactive measures to address disability issues in the country.