By XAVIER MULENGA – 
THE Norwegian Association of Disabled (NAD) has signed a long- term Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Finance on how the two countries can work on issues regarding Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR).
NAD head of international department Svein Brodtkorb said his organisation felt more comfortable to deal with government departments than Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) because governments had a bigger responsibility in addressing issues of the disabled in their countries.
Mr Brodtkorb said he was happy with all governments departments in Zambia for their role they played in addressing the many challenges that the disabled faced in the country.
Permanent Secretary (Budget) Ministry of Finance, Mrs Pamela Chibonga signed on behalf of the Zambian Government.
The signing of the agreement by the permanent secretary is a clear indication of the Government’s commitment to disability issues in the country.
CBR is a joint Programme of NAD and the Norwegian Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (NFU).
Mr Brodtkorb said when NGOs stopped funding CBR programmes, most projects ended up dying.
“We want to thank the involvement of government departments here in Zambia because government has a bigger responsibility to play in CBR programmes.
When NGOs and Civil Society Organisations pull out their funding, most projects end up dying,” Mr Brodtkorb said.
He said it was for this reason that NAD signed a long -term agreement with government to see how best CBR programmes would to be continued.
And Livingstone City Mayor Milford Maambo said the introduction of multi-sectoral CBR programme had added a lot of value to inclusive development plans and programmes in Southern province.
Mr Maambo said Livingstone, Zimba and Kazungula had seen a lot of CBR achievements especially in international level training of trainer of trainers (TOTS), Community Development Assistants (CDAs) and CBR volunteers in all the three districts.
He highlighted among other achievements as the establishment of the CBR programme managed by the Holy Family Centre in Monze a programme which was jointly funded by NAD and the Norwegian Association for persons with Developmental Disabilities (NFU).
“My office is pleased to learn that alongside the implementation of the CBR programme, NAD and NFU are also implementing a documentation and research project not only in Zambia but Malawi, Lesotho and Uganda,” Mr Maambo said.
Mr Maambo said he expected the CBR programme to scale up the training of more volunteers and other CBR workers in the remaining zones of Livingstone, Zimba and Kazungula to ensure that more people with disabilities were reached.
And teachers are critical CBR workers and play an important role in ensuring that children with disability are rehabilitated besides a special education teacher from Cheshire Homes in Livingstone shares her experience on why most of the teachers that have been trained in special education have opted to undertake regular classes as a result of no allowances for such classes.
Teacher in charge at Cheshire Homes, Evelyn Kazoka Malumbe said it is unfortunate that most of special education teachers have abandoned what they were trained in as they were not motivated enough.
“There is need for the Ministry of Education to realise that there are children with disabilities in the community that need to go to school and their teachers should be motivated,” she said.
Ms Malumbe said teachers in South Africa were better motivated than their colleagues in Zambia.
“When you are handling a child with disabilities you should be able to do everything for that child as the child will do everything in their clothes and you have to clean them if they urinate and defecate in their clothes, it is more than just teaching,” she said
Ms Malumbe said teaching children with special needs was a huge task.
“If the teachers are given allowances to handle the children with special needs they would be an increase in the number of teachers wanting to take up such classes in the country,” she said.
She said there was need to ensure that more teachers were motivated in teaching children with special needs in the country.
She said a child with learning disabilities is equivalent to 10 children in classroom.
“The lack of motivation had forced the teachers that had been trained in special education had opted to go back and teach the regular class. The teachers had abandoned the same as there was no motivation for them to teach the special education class,” Ms Malumbe said.
Southern Province Senior Education Standards officer Benson Zemba said the allowance used stand alone but now had been added to the pay.
He said the Government was still committed in ensuring that all the teachers were motivated.
The partnership between Government and NAD has further demonstrated its resolve by making the issues to do with disability enlightened
District education planning officer for Kazungula district Edward Hakanomba says the district was implementing inclusive learning for children with mild disability and there is no segregation in the way the children are handled.
Mr Hakanomba said the only challenge that the district was facing is that the standards officer that was trained to handle and coordinate special education units in the district has been retired and the district has to depend on Livingstone for support in the sector.
“The infrastructure that is in place in some areas is not very friendly to children living with disabilities such as the buildings that cannot allow a wheel chair to move,” he said
Mr Hakanomba said the ministry has never bought infrastructure like desks that can be friendly to children living with disabilities and added that the district has never bought any braille materials that the pupils can use.
He said it is sad that before the parents were sensitized they used to decide on their won that their particular child that is living with disability could not go to school.
“Some parents had written off their children and such parents did not support their children.
We enlightened the traditional leaders especially the head men on the importance of educating their children,” he said.
It is hoped that as the programme is rolled out in the next six year the lessons would be owned by the different stakeholders in the disability sector and other cross cutting sectors.
(The author is a freelance writer and social a workers based in Livingstone)