Overcoming obstacles: Helping the disabled help themselves

People with physical disabilities in FATA stand up for their rights.

The percentage of people with disabilities is higher in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) than other parts of the country due to persistent conflicts and resistance to anti-polio vaccinations in the region.

However, disabled people of the tribal belt are determined to fight for their rights to enable them to earn a livelihood and work for the betterment of their socio-economic status.

In 2009, a group of people belonging to the troubled Khyber Agency established an organisation titled Society for Promotion of Education and Employment of Disabled (SPEED).

SPEED President Muhammad Irshad Afridi completed his MBA from the University of Peshawar and suffers from disability himself. He says the organisation was formed to promote education, provide employment to disabled persons and eliminate discrimination against the physically challenged by ensuring their representation as useful citizens, customers and employees.



Hailing from Landi Kotal, Afridi is currently a student of the University of Melbourne in Australia. His thesis is based on people who have disabilities because of war and terrorism in Fata.

Afridi says he carried out a sampling, which revealed that 10 to 15% of people in Fata are disabled. According to him, the reasons behind this growing rate are a lack of basic healthcare facilities, the ongoing war against militancy and polio.



He adds that people rendered disabled in bomb blasts form a majority of this percentage. “Over 100,000 people are suffering from disabilities across Fata,” claims Afridi.

He says SPEED was established with the motive to mobilise, motivate and organise communities. Afridi says about 2,000 PWDs (Persons with Disabilities) from Fata are currently registered with SPEED, which registers people with every kind of disability.

“Our goal is to provide an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society where people with disabilities are provided equal opportunities in all walks of life,” Afridi says.

About the structure of SPEED, General Secretary Abdullah Shah says it is a non-governmental, non-profit and apolitical organisation, adding that they have two functional offices – a head office in Peshawar and a zonal office in Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency.

The organisation has an executive body consisting of nine members, four of whom are disabled. Its general body has 47 members comprising people having extensive experience in working on community development programmes and other associated fields.

Vice President Abdul Wahab said that since its inception, SPEED has achieved several milestones on development and rehabilitation of PWDs of Fata.

The first achievement was the establishment of a social welfare department at the Fata Secretariat.

In 2011, SPEED successfully completed a six-month Women Skills Development project funded by the Fata development authority and trained 20 disabled women in tailoring, embroidery and knitting.

Wahab says that with the financial support of another NGO, Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), SPEED is also running several projects to provide training to primary teachers on inclusive education and free medical camps, besides conducting awareness progammes.

In the future, SPEED wants to establish a special education centre for disabled children in each agency of Fata. The organisation also plans to start a Women Skills Development Programme Project for disabled women in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2013.