THE government has called on various development partners to help in improving infrastructures in existing Vocational Training Centres (VTC) for people living with disabilities in the country to have easy access.
This call was made by the Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliament, Coordination, Labor, Youth, Employment and the Disabled), Jenista Mhagama.
According to Ms Mhagama, most VTC are facing a major challenge of the deterioration of various infrastructures as well as the lack of essential infrastructure including toilets, classrooms, dormitories and other infrastructure, suitable to address plight of people living with disabilities.
She made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday while receiving two dormitories at Yombo Vocational Training Centre in Dar es Salaam for people with disabilities, which have been renovated by a non-governmental organisation Nyota Foundation at a cost of 80m/-.
“The government is making great efforts to improve these centres, but I would like to ask other stakeholders, companies, various national and international institutions to pay close attention to all VTCs countrywide,” she noted
Ms Mhagama said according to figures for 2012 Population Censuses, Tanzania had a total population of 55.9 million; of that number, 2.5 million people are disabled and thus increase the demand for various services and infrastructure for the group.
Earlier, Deputy Minister Prime Minister’s Office (Persons with Disability), Ms Ummy Nderiananga commended the minister for her commitment to improve the environment and conditions for people with disabilities through the involvement of various development stakeholders.
The representative of the Star Foundation, Zainab Mvungi, thanked the government for allowing the renovations to take place as well as providing co-operation throughout their work.
The state-owned Yombo VTC was established in 1973. The Eastern Region College is one of six colleges located in various regions in the country for providing vocational training for young people with disabilities in the country, other colleges are in the Southern zone (Mtwara), West (Tabora), Lake (Mwanza), North (Tanga) and Central (Singida).
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