People with special needs most discriminated against in Kosovo

So said in an interview for Kosovapress, HANDIKOS Central Director Africa Maliqi, according to which he said government institutions do not give long-term support to HANDICOS, only support any project and when the project ends the service.

“HANDIKOS works in two main directions, the first direction is to provide services to citizens with limited capacity as children, as well as to increase, and the second direction is accruing, lobbiing, creating laws or policies dealing with the lives of disabled people. When we're talking about services, we're an organization that's based 100 percent on projects alone and we're offering services that the state doesn't offer and we try to get in support of kids, like adults with different services, starting with the daily attitude of children, as well as adults, physical rehabilitation, psycho-Social rehabilitation, psychological support, preparation for education, then raising adult employment capacities for various issues that involve their involvement in society. In particular, we offer assistance equipment for those with limited skills, which is about 200 or over 200 equipment, and we distribute all of these over the year, all of these are based on projects with the support of several donors and very few told me is supported by our institutions, and that support is based on projects, respectively, and it is known that when the project ends, the” service, Maliqi said.

Maliqi said those with particular needs are the poorest and most discriminated against in Kosovo, all because of the failure to function laws.

The law on access or infrastructure of disabled persons that is not implemented at all, the employment law for disabled persons has not yet begun to apply, the inclusion of children in education is extremely small and is to say too much sorrow for us, both for our institutions and persons with limited abilities, I can freely say that they are the poorest group in our country, and they are discriminated against it and are supported by the law of protection from discrimination, which stresses that if a person with limited ability cannot get due to access, it is considered to discrimination, then Maliqi added.

Extensive contributions to supporting the implementation of the HANDIKOS programme have provided international partners such as “Handicap International”, “O XFAM”, Finnish F Agency IDIDA, Government of Finland, and Embassy of Finland, Italian Organisation “Onlus Wiamba-Athena”, “Onlus Roberto Bazoni”, “Save The Children” , U n NICEF, the European Agency for Construction and Reconstruction, etc. And in 2004, HANDICOS have also modestly supported several Kosovo municipalities and local donors.

The Association of Paraplegics and Paraplegic Paralytics of the Children of Kosovo was founded in 1983, at the initiative of Halit Feriz, then chairman of the association and later leader of Kosovo's limited capacity movement, along with a group of disabled citizens.

The main objective of this association is to improve the rights and living standards of disabled people in Kosovo through action in the areas of health, social and employment protection.

Otherwise, tomorrow, December 3rd marks HANDICOS Day, which will feature many activities by individuals with special abilities.