By DANIELA ITOE NGUM
Persons living with disability have been challenged to stop being beggars and a liability to their family and the society but rather engage in activities that can impact their community.
They were challenged by the founder of Exceptional Youths Initiative, Heline Babiene Eweni, during a one-day capacity building programme on Friday, June 28 2019, at the Women Empowerment and the Family Center Kumba.
According to Heline Babiene, most persons living with disability have been overpowered by their physical state, thereby unable to do something to generate income for themselves and the society. She urged them to look beyond their physical state and acquire skills that will be helpful to them.
“Disability is of the mind not of the hands or legs; when your mind tells you that ‘just because I don’t have legs I am a disabled person’ and you dwell on that, then you’re indeed a disable person; on the contrary, when you look beyond those hands and legs and take up a skill, you will become and asset to the society, an amplifier and one with a voice”, Babiene averred.
The capacity building workshop that grouped persons living with disability from the five Sub-divisions of Meme Division equipped them with skills on phones repair, manicure and pedicure and makeup. It equally had a presentation on ‘The mind-set and the issue of making choices; the barriers to overcoming minimal challenges’.
Earlier on, the organizer of the one-day capacity building workshop, Heline Babiene noted that the workshop is meant to instil confidence, talents and God’s-given sense of belonging to those considered in the society as physically challenged and not useful.
On his part, the President for ‘Close the Gap Association’ in Kumba, Takang Aya Ayuk thanked the organizers for the initiative and for choosening them to benefit from it. He called on his physically challenged peers to take the workshop serious for the skills gained will be of great importance to them.
“I want to thank the organizers of this workshop. To my fellow brothers and sisters, if you are a beggar, change your mind-set today, I want all of us to take this training exercise seriously, this will be a breakthrough to most of us”, the President noted.