BBC Africa Discusses Disability In Sierra Leone....Ahead Of The Paralympics In Rio, BBC Africa Will Look At What Life Is Like For Disabled People In Africa.
This month’s Africa Debate will ask whether life is getting easier for people with disabilities in Africa. Recorded in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the discussion will be presented by Hassan Arouni and Asad Ahmad who has a disability himself, with a distinguished panel including Sierra Leonean Paralympian, George Wyndam, and a live local audience.
More than 800 African Paralympians will participate in various sporting events including athletics, swimming, powerlifting and shooting, but these athletes are amongst the lucky few. Many people with disabilities across the continent still have to battle stigma and taboos that limit opportunities and restrict their participation in society. There can also be practical challenges such as a lack of access to equipment including wheelchairs, crutches and braille machines that would make their lives easier.
The World Health Organisation states that more than 81 million Africans live with some form of disability, including up to 15 % of school-age children. The debate will ask what more African countries can do for disabled people and how they can be fully included in society.
BBC Africa Debate can be heard on the World Service on Friday, 26 August at 1900GMT and online at bbcafrica.com, listeners from around the continent can also join in with the discussion by using the hashtag #BBCAfricaDebate on social media.
This week, Focus on Africa radio will bring further stories of those living with a disability in Africa. Listeners will hear about a Tunisian radio station whose entire staff is made up of people with disabilities; a Nigerian polio survivor forced to beg in traffic; a yoga class in Kenya – taught by a deaf teacher to deaf students; and the story of the man who set up Liberia’s Association of Blind People.
Further content can also found online at BBCAfrica.com,and on the @bbcafrica social media pages.
BBC Africa Debate is a monthly programme looking at the current issues that matter to Africa and bringing them to a global audience. Recorded on location around Africa and covering a wide range of topics, an invited audience engages robustly with a distinguished international panel.
BBC World Service’s BBC Africa hub brings together the production of multilingual content about the continent on radio, on TV and online on bbcafrica.com. As it delivers content in English, French, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Somali and Kiswahili, BBC Africa ensures a pan-African approach to the output, offering its audiences opportunities to join the global conversation. BBC Africa has teams based in London and across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and has well established production centres in various cities.
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