The need for a disability law in Sierra Leone

I recently found out that Sierra Leone has a disturbingly high percentage of people living with disabilities, around 10 percent of the population. Despite this the country has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. For many years civil society groups have tried hard to convince two successive governments to ratify the convention and subsequently enact it into law.

A large number of people suffered amputation during the civil war and many of them now beg on the streets because there is no opportunity to be employed. The number of schools for disabled people is minuscule and they can only accommodate up to 50 students each.

Recently a group called Health for All Coalition in collaboration with Handicap International organised another meeting in Freetown to sensitise members of the media and the public about the need for a disability law. Although many media persons attended the gathering, I have not seen the meeting covered in any of the newspapers here. It was even presided over by Julius Nye Cuffie, the country’s only disabled parliamentarian who has been campaigning tirelessly for the convention to be ratified.

My reporter Ayodele, a somewhat lazy but eager young chap attended this conference and was all set to write it up as a boring ‘he said she said’ kind of piece. That is usually the way that most events are covered here. He had already written out his piece and it made no mention of the fact that for over three years, the government had been finding excuses not to ratify the convention. This, he narrated to me only in conversation. I think my biggest challenge will be enabling reporters to spot a good story when they see one and be able to decide what issues merit detailed coverage. He also told me that taxi drivers often speed by when they see a disabled commuter on the street because according to traditional myths, disability equals the devil.

We managed to thrash it out and it’s now a very good story that talks about the need to ratify the convention and the rights of the disabled to live with dignity. We took an extra day to work on the editing and decided to reserve it for our newly launched Community Watch column. I was really disappointed that no other publication had picked up the issue. Perhaps this points to deep-seated social prejudices that spill over into the media and influence the way that editorial decisions are made. Or maybe reporters are not able to devote their time to all just causes because multiple social issues compete for their attention. I think this is where we as trainers can help the most, to bring in an outside perspective to help them crane their necks and look at the bigger picture.