| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation set out to understand the impact of poverty on the lives of children with disability and their families. Specifically, it sought to assess access to education and healthcare for children with disabilities as well as to identify interventions for disabled persons and how these have contributed to improving the quality of lives of persons with disabilities. The study adopted Ghana as its case study and employed the use of existing data for its assessment and analysis. Journal articles, government reports, newspaper articles and other grey literature were reviewed for the purpose of this study. The study found that despite significant progress in securing general access to primary healthcare through the national health insurance scheme, persons with disabilities still struggled to access healthcare due to poverty, inability to pay insurance premium, distance and unfriendly infrastructure at healthcare centres for the disabled. Similarly, in education, there has been major improvement in access to education through the free compulsory universal basic education FCUBE policy and the free senior high school policy. Progress on access to education has been modest at best for children with disabilities due to unsuitable infrastructure, negative attitudes from school authorities and fellow students as well as distance to schools. Interventions identified that have helped reduce poverty among the disabled include the Disability Common Fund, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty cash-transfer programme, and the community-based rehabilitation programme among others. Recommendations advanced in this dissertation to help reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of children with disabilities include, increase the allocation of the disability common fund, training and sensitization for healthcare workers and school authorities on serving the disabled as well as establishing a credible national database on persons with disabilities. | |
