Persons Living With Disabilities (PLWDs)

Under the new partnership agreement between Australia and Callan Services for Persons with Disabilities National Unit (CSNU), the program delivery will focus on disability screening services, treatment and referrals in Bougainville, communities in the Kokoda Track region and Western Province. 

The grant will increase the inclusion of people with disabilities by delivering assistive devices like hearing aids, eyeglasses and wheelchairs along with more specialised services. 

These members of society often face mistreatment, are more susceptible to abuse, have higher mortality rates compared to persons without disabilities, and have a higher illiteracy rate as well.

Speaking during the commemoration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, at the Eriku Oval, Australian Consul-General in Lae, Mark Foxe, voiced the need for every member of the community to promote the rights of People With Disabilities (PWDs).

This is so that people with disabilities can lead and participate in the decision-making processes that affect them.

They said they have nowhere else to go to access specialist care since the PNG rehabilitation centre became a subject of a legal battle over its ownership.

Even the hospitals are expensive and not very friendly in providing them the services they need.

While the matter is pending before the Waigani National Court, a person representing those who are spinal impaired says six have already died since the death of the late Brown Kapi in 2015.