BY SETHABILE MYENI
MBABANE – People living with disabilities have united in one voice to help the United Nations Eswatini to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This was disclosed by the Director of Eswatini Disability Comprehensive Disability Mainstreaming (ECDMI), Mandla Methula this morning.
He said they held a campaign on Wednesday at Mavuso Trade Centre with the theme ‘United in Action to Rescue and Achieve Sustainable Development Goals for, with and by Persons Living with Disabilities’.
“People living with disabilities have a role in economic development and most of the SDGs are not achievable without them for example, reducing poverty. This event aims to give people living with disabilities a voice to help attain the SDGs targets,” he said today during EBIS letishisako program .
EPN has gathered that Eswatini is committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and acknowledges the importance of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
According to a newsletter from United Nations Eswatini, this would be achieved through stakeholder consultations with the ministries, civil society, private sector, academia, donors, youth, women and persons living with disabilities.
Methula mentioned that people living with disabilities were equally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and they were also challenged economically.
“Government has various programmes that would help to achieve SDGs targets but most of those programmes do not prioritise and accommodate people with disabilities. We plead with the government to have at least an individual living with disability in every sector because they have hidden talents but they cannot express themselves because they are not given the chance,” said Methula.
