The Agona West Municipal Assembly has disbursed funds totalling GHC113,500 to 79 People with Disabilities (PWDs) to support their daily lives.
The disbursement is a fraction of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) used to support the PWDs and their families.
The members took home between GHC 1,000 and GHC2,000 and others pursuing further education had GHC4,000 each to address their academic needs.
Speaking at the disbursement ceremony, Mr Eric Gyamfi Odoom, the Agona West Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said the government under President John Mahama was committed to ensuring that PWDs in the Municipality enjoyed quality and better life.
The government would, therefore, continue to fast track the release of funds to aid their comfort.
Mr Odoom admonished the recipients not to misapply the funds but use them for the intended purposes in accordance with the Local government Act 963 of the MMDAs.
The MCE said previous the assemblies procured valuable items which included refrigerators, corn milling machines, fufu pounding machines and many others, to enable the PWDs earn a living out of them.
The trend, however, had been reversed to give them the cash due to unpleasant reports after a follow-up by a monitoring team realised the machines bought for some of the PWDs could not be found.
Investigations by the team found that some of the beneficiaries sold their items cheaply, and in one instance, a GHC10,000 deep freezer was sold for GHC3,000.
Mr Odoom cautioned the care givers of the PWDs to desist from taking advantage of their situation, adding that disability could happen to anybody at any time and stigmatisation must stop.
Mr Robert Kobena Baah, Agona West Municipal Director of Social Welfare and Community Development, urged the PWDs to put their funds received into good venture to avert wastage.
Mr Baah, who is also the Acting Agona West Municipal Coordinating Director, served notice that a monitoring team would soon be deployed to assess how the monies were being used.
Mr Tanko Mohammed, Agona West President of Federation of People with Disabilities, expressed gratitude to the government for increasing the amount and for regular releases to the members to reduce their financial difficulties.
The President was optimistic that those pursuing further education whose monies had been increased would continue their education without too much stress and urged them to study hard.
GNA
