PWD Inclusion: CleanAce, MTN Breathe Hope, Possibility Into PWDs

…chart pathway for employment, economic sustainability

Committed to promoting inclusion and economic empowerment among Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), the CleanAce Foundation and Academy, partnering with the MTN Foundation, has launched what it tags the Inclusive Fabricare Skills Empowerment Programme aimed at equipping persons living with deafness with world-class fabric care and dry-cleaning skills.

Of course, it has, in the past few years, become altruistically characteristic of the CleanAce Foundation And Academy led by the reverend gentleman, ẸniIbukun Adebayo, to device schemes and programmes aimed at reaching the unreached and seemingly forgotten sector of the Nigerian populace (especially the youth segment) to breeze an aura of hope and possibility into the hitherto hopeless.

Advancing this course, the CleanAce/MTN collaborative initiative, was unveiled during a press briefing on Tuesday ahead of the commencement of an intensive training aimed  at dousing the unemployment dilemma facing the persons with disabilities (PWDs) by providing them with employable skills and opportunities for entrepreneurship in the nation’s fast-growing fabric care industry.

Mr Adebayo, the Founder and Chief Executive of CleanAce in an interaction with journalists, disclosed that the programme was born out of a desire to empower vulnerable Nigerians and address the shortage of skilled manpower in the fabric care sector.

He said: “We can train people who do not have opportunities, especially people with disabilities, and give them a voice. They can make money, start their own businesses and secure quality jobs.”

Adebayo recalled that the organisation’s experience with one of its first deaf trainees inspired the initiative.

“What other people would have learnt in one month, this young man learnt in one week. He was highly concentrated and diligent, and today he is one of the best,” he added.

Adebayo further disclosed that six cohorts had already been trained under the programme initiated by his fabric care company with several beneficiaries securing employment and even  started businesses of their own.

“Some of them earn as much as N200,000 monthly just from ironing because they are diligent and get the job done,” he remarked.

Adebayo, who also serves as the President of the Fabricare Professionals and Drycleaning Association (FPDA), noted that the demand for trained deaf professionals in the fabric care industry currently exceeds supply, as many dry-cleaning businesses across Nigeria are eager to employ them.

“I have about 200 dry cleaners connected across Nigeria, and everybody is waiting to say, ‘Train them and send them to us.’ There is employment available in excess, even for a thousand of them,” he said.

Speaking on government partnership, he said the programme has also received recognition from the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), which honoured CleanAce Foundation as a champion in the disability inclusion space.

The current cohort, according to him, will train 30 deaf participants residing in Lagos State for a duration of six months.

The programme comprises three months of intensive training, two months of internship placements with partner dry-cleaning companies and one month of post-internship evaluation.

Speaking on the partnership, Senior Manager, Programme Implementation at MTN Foundation, Mr. Edward Fagun, said the collaboration aligns with the Foundation’s commitment to disability equity and inclusion.

“We know very much how disability is seen as a stigma in this part of the world, but we want to change that narrative together with CleanAce Foundation and Academy and show that there is also ability in disability,” Fagun said.

He added that the programme would enable beneficiaries to become self-reliant and contribute meaningfully to society.

“This is another avenue through which we can support people with disabilities, helping them become people who are independent and beneficial to their families and society at large,” he noted.

Also speaking, Chairman of the Association of Sign Language Interpreters in Lagos State, Mr. Shodehinde Olubowale, described the initiative as transformative for the deaf community.

“This programme means many of the deaf people around us do not need to be begging on the streets. They can participate fully in society and have something meaningful to earn for themselves,” he said.

Olubowale urged more corporate organisations to emulate the initiative by creating employment and empowerment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Speaking at the event, Funmilola Arike Ogunro, founder of Friends of the Deaf International, said she was inspired to learn sign language and establish the foundation after losing her deaf sister because doctors could not effectively communicate with her.

According to Ogunro, the painful experience motivated her to ensure that other deaf persons do not suffer the same fate as her late sister and to advocate for greater inclusion and support for the deaf community.

Following the press briefing, journalists and other attendees were taken on a guided tour of the CleanAce facility.

As Nigeria continues to seek solutions to unemployment, the Inclusive Fabricare Skills Empowerment Programme is emerging as a model for how targeted skills acquisition can unlock the immense potential of persons with disabilities and transform them into productive contributors to national development.

Adding the Lagos State voice to the positive development, the Human Resource Director of LASODA, Mrs. Omolade Sonubi, expressed the agency’s support for the programme, describing it as a practical demonstration that disability should not be viewed as a limitation or impossibility.

“This initiative has challenged us to think about new ways of integrating more persons with disabilities into corporate organisations.

“You have demonstrated that disability is not a liability. There is ability in disability,” she posited…

Source: INDEPENDENT https://independent.ng/pwd-inclusion-cleanace-mtn-breathe-hope-possibility-into-pwds/