DILI, 10 july 2023 (TATOLI)-Over 93,000 people have been identified with disabilities in Timor-Leste, a tiny nation located between Australia and Indonesia, and among those, 17,000 are identified as the most vulnerable, The Executive Director of the Association of Disability of Timor-Leste (ADTL), Cesario da Silva, said, according to the National Statistical Data for 2022.
Cesario made the comparison that in 2015, Timor-Leste recorded only 38,128 people with disabilities, while its number increased rapidly to 93,000 in 2022. It means that the number has increased five times consecutively during the last seven years.
“Therefore, the organization of disabilities requires that we work side by side with the government to prioritize the lives of disabled people in Timor-Leste,” the Executive Director of ADTL told Tatoli in an exclusive interview that took place in ADTL’s office in Mascarenhas, Dili, Timor-Leste, on monday.
The ADTL’s high authorities highlighted the necessity of the intervention of executives of Timor-Leste in prioritizing the people with disabilities by allocating a sufficient budget, whether through the disability’s organization or directly to the disabled in Timor-Leste, to improve their lives.
“We see that in 2022, the Government and National Parliament of Timor-Leste have already ratified the United Nations Convention on Persons with Disabilities’ law. This policy is good; hopefully the government will implement the UN’s convention to prioritize the fate of disabled people in Timor-Leste,” he outlined.
It’s recalled that the former Government led by Taur Matan Ruak, the former Prime Minister, established an inter-ministerial commission comprising 11 ministries to prioritize the situation and condition of life of the people with disabilities in Timor-Leste through the allocation of the State General Budget.
The ministries mentioned were the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusiveness, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of State Administration, the Secretariat State of Equality, the Secretariat of Youth and Sport, the Secretariat of State for Vocational Training and Employment, and the Secretariat of State for Cooperatives.
“The 11 inter-ministerial bodies had stated their commitment to allocate each budget to support disabled people directly and also through the organization of disability in Timor-Leste to implement priority programs such as capacity building in training, education, and other related programs to improve the disabled in Timor Executive Director of ADTL addressed.
“We hope that the new Government will focus on prioritizing the issue of disabled people so as to not leave anyone behind in Timor-Leste,” he concluded.
Journalist : Camilio de Sousa
Editor : Rafael Ximenes de A. Belo
