Persons with Disabilities as CDDs

“We wish to be recognized as people with abilities”

CDDs are volunteers within a given community who are trained to administer certain drugs to the people of their community, as they know the members of their community per family. The treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) involves certain drugs. Praziquantel, Albendazole, Ivermectin (Mectizan), Mebendazole, Azithromycin and Tetracycline eye ointment are used in the treatment of Onchocerciasis (Oncho), Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), Trachoma, Schistosomiasis (Schisto) and Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH).

Malah, Ali and Haro have so far been a CDD for the past two Mass Drug Administrations (MDAs). They partook of Oncho-LF and Trachma MDA. They said their joy of being CDDs are the testimonies the people who accepted the drug gave and the admiration they receive from people, as they can see and feel the positive changes in their bodies as a result of taking the medication.

PwD are mostly poor people and are seen as objects of charity. Initially, they were not sent to school by their families nor were they allowed to go to the farmlands. They were sent out to beg for alms, but now are changing the narrative themselves. They are a part of the Cripple Association of Karasuwa LGA and the National Physical Challenge Association of Nigeria, Yobe State chapter. They support each other and raise funds for marriage, ill-health and most especially, for the members who wish to further their education; the organization, deliberately send their young to further their education, before marriage. Malah, like quite a number of them, has a diploma in Science Laboratory Technology.

They desire the government to create jobs for them instead of begging on the streets. They do not want to be beggars but to work in offices or run businesses as normal people do. They only beg because they do not want to rely on their families for their daily needs.