Ghana National Association for the Deaf (GNAD) has climaxed its 50th anniversary celebration with a football gala competition at Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) on Friday, August 10, 2018, after a lot of year long activities in the country.
The competition which was participated by all ten regional representatives, was of the theme “50 Years of Advocacy; Successes, Challenges and the Way Forwards”, with the winning teams taking home trophies and medals.
The National President of GNAD, Emmanuel Kweku Sackey, speaking in an interview with Otec News’ Evans Aboagye, through an interpreter, appealed to the government to assist its members in terms of sign language training, advocacy for the right to information for the deaf and employment.
“We would like to appeal to the government to give employment to our members to assist us in our living. Our challenges in hearing and talking make it difficult to compete with other members of the society, we therefore wish to use your medium to appeal to the government to have a special dispensation to us (GNAD) in the creation of employment,” he said.
Speaking through their Sign Language Interpreter, Robert Frimpong Manso, the President also said most of the members are endowed with academic intellects, “and when given the opportunity, we can serve in any capacity, in both private and public institutions, for the development of the economy”.
The President mentioned that the continued use of derogatory terminology to call deaf people such and ‘Deaf and Dumb’ noting that the use of such terms undermines the dignity of the deaf person.
He concluded his interview by calling on the National Sports Council (NSC) to create a national football team for them o allow them to participate in both regional and national tournaments.
Source: otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
