allAfrica.com: Uganda: Carrying the Torch for the Disabled (Page 1 of 1)

After few minutes of waiting at his residence in Ntinda, Mr James Mwandha finally emerged from the library within the house. He was in a wheelchair.

The wheelchair is automatic and a mere pressing of a button can lead Mr Mwandha to any part of the house. He was in the library attending a teleconference probably communicating to members of the Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum (CDPF) in other Commonwealth Countries. Mwandha was last month elected to chair the executive committee of newly created CDPF at a function held in London on March 16.

Mr James Mwandha is the chairman of the executive committee of the newly created Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum.

The Forum is an outcome of a conference held in Kampala before the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting (Chogm) took place in November last year.

During the conference, a number of resolutions were made, one of which was to form CDPF.

"During Chogm, there was a Youth Forum, Children's Forum, Business Forum, Open Space Forum and we felt that we needed to form a forum of our own as disabled persons," Mwandha says.

A committee consisting members from Uganda, South Africa, United Kingdom and Canada was then formed. It has been working since November up to March this year when the forum was inaugurated.

"We have worked out a constitution and elected members and we are in the process of recruiting members into the forum of which members will come from disabled persons' organisations throughout the 53 commonwealth countries and begin preparing for the 2009 Chogm to be held in Trinidad and Tobago," Mwandha says.

CDPF's main objective is to have one voice to advocate the promotion of rights and equalisation of opportunities of People with Disabilities (PWDs) and address the continuing inequalities and exclusion they face in all Commonwealth countries.

Mr Mwandha has huge plans for PWDs. He says the Forum's first assignment would be to lobby for the promotion, ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of PWDs by all the Commonwealth countries.

In December 2006, the General Assembly adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of PWDs. The Commonwealth Heads of Government, in their statement in Kampala in November 2007, also recognised the need to adopt, ratify, and implement this convention.

"This is a new convention which became an international law this month and all member states are obliged to implement it," he says. "In Uganda for example, we are very good at coming up with good policies and laws but they just remain in books and nothing happens," he adds.

Mwandha says the PWDs Act which spells out the rights of disabled persons in the areas of education, employment, health and measures that must be taken to ensure that PWDs' rights are not violated has never been implemented.

He also says that Uganda's Constitution has very good provisions for PWDs but very little has been done to address issues that affect them.

"These laws and policies are intended to enable PWDs join the mainstream society and enjoy what the country offers and if they are not implemented then it is unfortunate. Right now we have a lot of disabled persons who are qualifying from universities but they have no jobs," he says.

He says that although there are able-bodied gradates who are also unemployed, the principle of affirmative action needs to be applied so that some of PWDs are given job opportunities so that they earn a decent living.

Another issue which he says the forum needs to address is HIV/Aids among PWDs saying they are vulnerable in many respects.

"Women cannot successfully fight off rape. A man with HIV can offload the problem to someone who is helpless," he says. Mwandha says that sometimes messages sent out regarding HIV/Aids prevention do not reach some of them particularly the deaf who cannot hear the electronic messages and the blind who cannot read information on posters.

He says the forum will establish a working group of young disabled people to come up with issues that affect them including HIV/Aids.

According to World Health Organisation, 10 percent of the members of any given population are disabled. This means that in Uganda whose population stands at 30 million, there are 3 million disabled persons.

Profile

• Mwandha holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Barth, England and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK

• He is a polio survivor who has held several senior positions in the Uganda Public Service reaching the level of Managing Director of a Parastatal organisation.

• From 1989 to 2006, he served as a Member of Parliament in Uganda, representing People with Disabilities.

• In Parliament, he belonged to several Parliamentary Committees some of which he chaired.

• He led Uganda's delegation to the UN Ad hoc Committee on the Convention on the Rights and Dignity of People with Disabilities from 2002 to 2006. He was a member of a group of Parliamentarians and ex-Parliamentarians who contributed to the compilation of the Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published by the inter Parliamentary Union.

• He is currently the Chairman of the National Steering Committee on the implementation of the African Decade for People with Disabilities 2000-2009. He also chairs the Uganda National Action on Physical Disability, a National DPO in Uganda and is actively engaged in disability rights advocacy in Uganda and Africa.

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