Investing in Children with Disability

Statistics show that up to 150 million children globally have adisability and the numbers are rising. Children with disabilities aredisproportionately likely to live in poverty. 50% of children who are deaf and 60% of those with an intellectual impairment are sexuallyabused. Parents and medical professionals who murder children withdisabilities often have reduced sentences and use mercy killingdefences – the lives of children with disabilities are not treated asof equal value with others. 98% of children with disabilities acrossthe developing world have no access to education. Discrimination in relation to life saving treatments, to health care,to child care services and education is endemic. Access to justice is routinely denied because they are not consideredcredible witnesses.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Malawi is asignatory, has special provisions for children with a disability.Article 2.1 prohibits discrimination on various grounds, includingdisability. Article 23 sets out the right to special care, ecudationand training.

In Malawi, nationwide statistics show that there were about 70,000children with special needs in all primary schools as of last year, of whom 21 percent were with visual impairment, according to DeputySpecial Needs Education Director in the Ministry of Education, David Njaidi. This number had, in fact, drastically increased from 43,500recorded only in 2005, which shows that there may be thousands more out there who are yet to out into the open (consider the stigmatisation aspect!).

It is, therefore, logical that more needs to be done from the government side by way of making significant investmentsand strategic programming to reduce and address the plight thatchildren with disabilities are facing in the country.