She noted: “Inclusiveness is a fundamental human right,” pledging to work to enhance public awareness of cerebral palsy especially in correcting myths and reducing stigmatisation.  Nana Oye Lithur announced this at a forum to celebrate World Cerebral Palsy Day in Ghana on October 5, on the theme: “A child with Cerebral Palsy – A child with possibilities.”

Cerebral palsy a neurological disorder that affects movement and sometimes speech of children is the most common physical disability among children. The Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister said: “Let us all ensure that children with Cerebral Palsy and their families can have full lives that enables them to contribute to national development.”

She announced that government had increased the proportion of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) allocated to persons with disability by 50 per cent, Nana Oye Lithur said government intends to introduce an additional 30 per cent increase of the DACF reserved for persons with disability to cater for their free National Health Insurance Scheme subscription.

The Minister used the platform to help register more than 90 parents and children with cerebral palsy unto the national health insurance scheme and presented gifts to them. Reverend Edmund Asante, Director in charge of Development and Social Services at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, said the church saw an urgent need to celebrate World Cerebral Palsy Day to contribute to awareness on the issue.

The forum organised by the Presbyterian Health Services, under the Department of Development and Social Services is part of effort by the Presbyterian Church in collaboration with CBM, an NGO and the International Centre for Evidence in Disability of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to share some findings of a two year research project on Cerebral Palsy

Sharing some findings, Rev, Asante said the project had seen a 30 per cent improvement in overall quality of life measures.  “We found that knowledge and confidence of the care givers about how to care for a child with cerebral palsy has significantly improved,” he said.  He noted that providing assistive devices such as appropriate chairs for seating, standing frame  etc for children to enable care givers to enhance their ability to work, rather than always carrying the child.

Rev Asante said most care givers are unaware of the existence of the DACF and only one family had accessed the fund.  He appealed to government to consider establishing schools for such children.  Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Initiator of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy project on Cerebral Palsy, called on the government to show more commitment towards helping parents with such children.

 “Many educated mothers are forced to become stay-home mums because they have a child with Cerebral Palsy and yet caring for the children is expensive,” she added  She also urged the Minister to consider talking government into setting up early childhood development centres or day care centres where parents with younger Cerebral Palsy children could leave them to go and work to enable them earn a living.

Mrs Awadzi said parents especially mothers of children with Cerebral Palsy should be involved in policy making and decisions about the health condition, since they live with it and understand issues better.

 The Presbyterian Church Health Directorate said the celebration of the Day was replicated across all the regions of Ghana.