The Justice, Development and Peace Caritas Initiative (JDPCI), an agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, has called on stakeholders to renew their commitment to inclusion, dignity, equality and justice in the country.
The Executive Director of JDPCI, Rev. Fr. Sebastian Sanni, made the call at the inauguration of the **Bold Action for Advancing Disability Rights and Inclusive Development Project** for selected states in the North-Central region.
According to him, the three-year project, implemented in partnership with Christian Blind Mission (CBM) International, focuses on addressing disability inclusion from a broader and more sustainable perspective in Benue, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The cleric said the project focuses on promoting the rights, participation, dignity and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
He explained that the project would contribute to strengthening disability-inclusive systems and improving access to opportunities and essential services, while supporting the participation of persons with disabilities in community development and decision-making processes.
“We, therefore, see this project as a platform for partnership, collective action and sustainable change. At JDPCI, we remain firmly committed to the principles of human dignity, social justice, participation, equity and the common good.
“We believe that a society cannot truly claim to be inclusive while persons with disabilities continue to face barriers to education, healthcare, livelihoods, employment, information, political participation, public infrastructure and other essential services.
“I wish to call on all our stakeholders to see this project as our collective responsibility.
“We encourage government institutions to remain committed to implementing disability-inclusive policies and strengthening systems that protect the rights of persons with disabilities.
“To civil society organisations and development partners, we invite you to strengthen collaboration, knowledge-sharing and joint advocacy.
“This is not merely the launching of a project. We are launching a renewed commitment to inclusion, dignity, equality and justice,” he said.
Also speaking, the Country Director of CBM, Mr Samuel Omoi, said persons with disabilities are at the core of CBM’s programmes.
Represented by the Finance Expert at CBM, Mr Emmanuel Abba, Omoi said the project was particularly focused on persons with disabilities in the three locations.
“There are other disability programmes CBM is funding, such as the Disability Rights Advocacy Project for Inclusive Development (D-RAPID) in Delta.
“It has a component for national-level disability-inclusive coordination and also supports disability-inclusive programme implementation in Delta as well as Benue.
“It is our expectation that during the roundtable discussion, we will discuss the challenges of disability inclusion in the FCT, where we are in terms of legislation, implementation and enforcement, and also come up with recommendations that will help us better support the disability community,” he said.
Mr Bitrus Ameloko, Deputy Commandant of Corps, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), FCT Command, said the corps was in tandem with the objectives of the project.
Represented by Assistant Commandant of Corps, Mrs Obi Ogechi, Ameloko said the NSCDC was committed to enforcing disability laws.
He said the NSCDC had inaugurated persons with disabilities desks across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT to swiftly attend to matters affecting persons with disabilities.
He added that no fewer than 100 officers had been trained in sign language and that a lot of intelligence had been gathered through the unit.
“We are here to support persons with disabilities and enforce the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.
“So, we are ready to partner with every organisation that is in tandem with this and JDPCI’s objectives. As you roll out the project, we are here to also support it,” he said.
I shortened the headline to **“JDPCI Calls for Disability Inclusion”** and corrected grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, repetitions, punctuation and consistency issues while preserving the substance and quotations.
