PESHAWAR (Nadir Khan): Participatory Rural Development Society (PRDS) under its Multiple Year Resilience Program (MYRP) distributed assistive devices among the 600 handicapped and physically impaired male & female students of Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda, enabling these children to get education without any hindrance.
Assistive devices including wheelchairs, walking sticks/stands, eye glasses and hearing devices were distributed among the most vulnerable 600 students of government-run schools with the support of international volunteer organization “VSO” and Education Cannot Wait. In this regard distribution ceremonies were held at Government High Schools Sheikh Abad Peshawar and other schools of Nowshera and Charsadda, wherein after proper medical check-up and screening, students were handed over these assistive devices. Besides officers of Elementary & Secondary Education KP like DEOs and DDEOs, provincial head of MYRP KP Tariq Hayat Yousafzai, teachers and students were also present.
Mr. Tariq Hayat told the participants that a lot of special and unprivileged students struggle to get a good education. Their parents might not have enough money to support these children and provide them assistive devices to cater their needs thus many disabled students leave their schools because of certain physical inabilities like weakness in eye sight, hearing issues or other major/minor physical disabilities. He said that wheelchairs and equipment were distributed among physically challenged 335 female and 269 male students to encourage them because they deserve the needful support and attention which will not only enable them to continue their academic activities, but will also help reduce the effects of social deprivation in them.
He said that access to equitable and quality education is the basic right of every child and hundreds of poor and underprivileged children are benefiting from VSO initiatives. On the occasion education officers also appreciated this initiative and expressed hope that PRDS and VSO should extend these initiatives to other districts of the province as well.