Wilson Arthur shares how he impacted 854 PWDs in Wassa East as DCE

• Posted on December 8, 2022December 8, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A former District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Wassa East District Assembly, Hon. Wilson Arthur has shared with Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting on Disability (MCBIRD) fellows how he impacted over 854 Persons living with Disability in his district during his tenure.

At the MCBIRD programme as an Ignite Speaker, Mr. Arthur stated that a total of eight hundred and fifty-four (854) PWDs were impacted and over a hundred (100) of them received direct support under his management.

He said some of the support received by the PWDs were mobility machines, cocoa spraying machines, deep freezers and the payment of fees for some PWDs who were in school.

According to him, he went the extra mile to achieve it as he did not only depend on funds from the assembly’s wallet but sought sponsorship from private entities to support the project.

Advising media practitioners at the capacity building programme, the Skyy Media CEO advised the beneficiaries who are all media practitioners and communications professionals to do critical research on stories so they educate the public on some government policies rather than throwing dust in eyes of the people.

He said, “As media practitioners, it is your work to do critical research on issues before you share your opinions so you don’t misinform the public, it is the responsibility of media to research and educate.”

The MCBIRD is a bespoke training program that seeks to amplify and empower the voice and efforts of journalists who have distinguished themselves in helping to reduce the stigma and discrimination, as well as lead to improved goverment policies on disability. In order reach more journalists in the regions, the first edition was held in Accra but was relocated and hosted in Takoradi this year.

The program is supported by the US Embassy Ghana. The two day residential training which was held in Takoradi took the fellows through creative reporting on disability, the right language style, the use of tone, disability laws, ethics and many more. The fellows who have embarked on various projects in disability reporting shared their previous and future works on disability which was finetuned by the facilitators.