BAMENDA, CAMEROON – Ruth Acheinegeh, who was diagnosed with polio at age 2, uses crutches to get around. But she says many places in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s Northwest region, can’t accommodate her.
“It pains my heart when persons with disabilities are left out in issues that are supposed to include them,” she says.
Family, government and society contribute to making life difficult for the disabled, says Acheinegeh, who serves as president of the Northwest Association of Women with Disabilities.
The association teaches members about their rights and personal development issues, ranging from education to hygiene. It also strives to educate the community about disabilities, calling for the social, economic, political and infrastructural inclusion of disabled people, and women especially.
On the family level, she says that families neglect members with disabilities.
“The family should be the first place to make life enjoyable for their handicapped children,” she says. “But on the contrary, most families see them as a burden. They are left without the basic necessities, especially mobility necessities.”
Acheinegeh says that if families make it their duty to meet the needs of their disabled members, it gives them the self-esteem to fight for their rights in the larger society.
“Homes, government structures and even churches are not accessible to disabled,” she says. “We expect that ramps and rails should be constructed in government and or public buildings so as to ease mobility for persons living with disabilities.”
Acheinegeh says the disabled must demand access to infrastructure so they are not left out of public and private development projects in the nation.
Disabled people in Cameroon say that families, the government and society don’t consider their needs, especially when it comes to developing infrastructure that will increase access. Leaders of organization for disabled people are asking the government to ratify the U.N. convention protecting their rights and to raise awareness about accessibility requirements for construction and renovation in Cameroon. Government officials say they are making efforts to include disabled citizens when erecting public structures and to ensure their rights.
The World Health Organization estimates that disabled people make up 10 percent of the population in Cameroon, a country of more than 20 million people. The major causes of disability include leprosy, polio, road and work accidents, and onchocerciasis or river blindness.
Frankline Essame relies on crutches to walk after being crippled by polio. He says his biggest worry is the inaccessibility of government and public buildings in Bamenda.
“It is very disturbing if you have something to do in an office but you cannot get inside because of the way the building is structured,” he says. “I encounter this all the time, and it is so painful.”
Essame says he hopes that occasions like the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated on Dec. 3, push government officials and other community members to listen to the needs of the disabled and take action.
Cecilia Ngwafor, who lives in Bamenda, says her daughter is disabled. But the government school she attends is not equipped to accommodate children with disabilities.
“Every day, she has to come out of her wheelchair and crawl to her class because there is no easy passage for her,” Ngwafor says of her daughter. “It is very disturbing because it makes her uniform dirty every day.”
Ngwafor says government and administrators at public and private schools must consider the needs and concerns of the disabled when constructing or choosing buildings for their schools.
Samuel Nyingcho, 40, is blind. He is the president of the Coordinating Unit of Associations of Persons with Disabilities in the Northwest Region, an umbrella organization that coordinates activities for 35 independent associations of people living with disabilities in the region.
Nyingcho says that even the building housing the Ministry of Social Affairs, which is the lead ministry for disability and rehabilitation in Cameroon, is not accessible.
“Our ministry, the Ministry of Social Affairs in Yaoundé, is a story building,” Nyingcho says.
He says the multiple-story office in the nation’s capital is inaccessible to disabled people.
“I was in the ministry a few days ago, and workers were carrying persons in wheelchair into the conference room of the minister,” he says. “In the 21st century, it is so unfortunate.”
He says that the office housing the regional delegation of the ministry in Bamenda also lacks ramps and other features to make it accessible.
Nyingcho calls for a change of attitude toward people with disabilities in order to improve accessibility locally and nationwide.
“Disability is not a problem,” he says. “The problem is the attitude. It is because of attitude that we have infrastructure developed without taking into consideration the pride of persons with disability.”
Nyingcho calls on the government to do two things for people with disabilities.
“There are two key related issues,” he says. “One is the ratification of the United Nations convention on the plight of the handicapped.”
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities calls for the promotion, protection and guarantee of the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people with disabilities.
Ratifying this convention will help people with disabilities to hold violators of their rights accountable, Nyingcho says.
The second key issue is making the text of a 2010 law available to the public, he says.
The law strengthens the requirement that all construction and renovation of infrastructure and buildings that are open to the public consider accessibility for disabled citizens.
But there is currently no document that clearly states or breaks down the text of the law for the disabled to use as their reference in cases of violation, Nyingcho says.
“If these two things are done, we can use these as a platform to advocate for our rights to be respected,” he says.
Raymond Moutsou, the regional delegate for the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Northwest region, addressed several of these issues at an event celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities during December in Bamenda.
“The government, through the Ministry of Social Affairs, is fighting for the rights of persons living with disability,” he says. “All disabled should take the first step of acquiring their invalidity cards so as to get themselves in line with the law that protects them.”
National Disability Cards grant people with disabilities access to various benefits and services, including preferential treatment in transportation. Moutsou says the government is reacting positively to the infrastructural problems that disabled people have voiced.
“The minister of social affairs signed a text in 2007 with contractors and subcontractors to consider persons with disabilities when constructing government buildings,” he says.
He says this move is working in favor of people living with disabilities who have suffered from the inaccessibility of these structures. The 2010 law strengthened that requirement.
As for the inaccessible Ministry of Social Affairs delegation building in Bamenda, Moutsou says there is currently no other building it can move into. He says the ministry will move offices whenever it finds a more accessible building.
During a recent visit to the University of Bamenda, Acheinegeh says she noticed there are ramps and railings in all the newly constructed buildings. She says she was so excited to see that the new structures were considering the needs of the disabled.
