Dr. (Rev.) Richard Nii Amartey Adesah, the founder and CEO of the Up and Shine Foundation, is pleading with the government to ensure the establishment of a special fund for children with disabilities to guarantee their all-around growth.
In his New Year’s address in Accra, Rev. Adesah, the immediate past President of the Federation of Africa Amputee Football, made the request and expressed optimism that a fund of this kind would help to shift the national narrative around disability.
“A fund that would sustain the development of these exceptional children would inevitably result in a shift in the narrative about disability and the behavior of persons with disabilities (PWDs),” he said, quoting, “To help raise the children to become responsible adults, I wish to appeal to the government on behalf of the Foundation and those in the disability sector,” he stated and explained vividly.
The non-governmental organization (NGO), thus the Up and Shine Foundation, which promotes the holistic development of children with disabilities, started an awareness-raising campaign later in the previous year to highlight the importance of providing holistic education to kids with disabilities.
They engaged the kids with the market vendors and raised awareness of the need for special care for kids with disabilities.
In a conversation with the moms, Rev. Dr. Richard Nii Amartey Adesah related how some of the kids in the foundation’s academy developed disabilities as a result of their parents’ neglect. He described how Ella, a double amputee, lost her limbs at the age of 1.5 when her mother abandoned her in a room with a lighted candle with her 3-year-old sister.
Meanwhile, the candle caused her feet to burn, and she would have perished if a bystander hadn’t intervened in time.
Also, he continued by telling the tale of another young child who, when his mother turned her back on him, reached into a corn mill and severed part of his arm. Rev. Dr. Adesah warned women, who spend more time with their children than anyone else, to exercise extra caution to prevent avoidable disabilities in their children.
If they fail to take appropriate action, they may face criminal charges for child negligence. Instead of confining their disabled children indoors or viewing them as cursed children, he urged parents to take them to the academy at Kwakyekrom, close to Nsawam, where they will receive the holistic development necessary to become responsible people.
“If given the right upbringing and training from a young age, our academy believes children with disabilities can become responsible adults like any other person,” he revealed. This is why we are interested in the holistic development of children with disabilities.
He went on to say that inadequate parenting or social support can be a contributing factor in the demise of individuals with disabilities, as it hinders their ability to become self-sufficient and develop self-belief in their capacity to advance their nation.
The immediate past president of the Federation of Africa Amputee Football (FAAF), Rev. Dr. Adesah, reaffirmed his belief that children with various forms of disability could be raised to become outstanding men and women of their generations, just as some amputee football players make a living through sports.
As part of their campaign for the holistic development of children with disabilities, the kids had earlier visited Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, at Mahyia Palace during the final Akwasidae of the year.
The Mamensehene of Ashanti hosted them initially and vowed to support the academy’s endeavors, urging everyone to back the leaders of the academy’s vision. The John Kinney Foundation backed their campaign, promising to contribute to the effort to reframe the perception of disability.
