The General Manager of the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), Mrs Adenike Oyetunde-Lawal, has proclaimed the 21st of September, 2024, as the international day of Usher-syndrome to halt its advent and possibly make it history, thereby reducing the future incidence of deaf-blindness worldwide.
LASODA indicates her recognition of and full support for this annual observance going forward, while Oyetunde-Lawal enjoined the noble people of the State and the nation as a whole to avail themselves of the knowledge of Usher-syndrome made available for the benefit of all and sundry.
The recognition was made after an awareness rally led by LALIF with support from the Disability Rights Fund (DRF). The walk, which started at the National Stadium, Surulere, culminated at the LASODA office in Alahusa.
While receiving the team, the GM charged Lagosians “to join hands to safeguard the health and general wellbeing of generations yet unborn, as well as to work for the academic, health and all-round inclusion of affected citizens with deaf-blindness in the society.
“As an office, we will join in the continuous awareness and advocacy especially as it concerns prevention as well as knowledge and we are taking this awareness into the medical space so that those that should care for them as soon as it’s necessary step into action,” she said.
GM, LASODA advised both parent/guardians and care givers, as well as individuals with deafblindness, to accept the realities of the disability and to ensure optimal living for persons with deafblindness.
“For the individuals with Usher-syndrome, there are many people around the world who have gone above and beyond the expectations that the world has set for them, don’t be an exemption.
“We are putting out the word to the entire world as well as Nigerians about the realities that you live with so it means that anything that happens to any single persons with disability as right and privileges will come to you, you just need to accept, know what will come to you, and demand rightly by placing adequate, specific and intentional demands on the government and most especially the agency as the case is,” she added.
Mr. Solomon Okelola, Executive Director, Lionheart Ability Leaders International Foundation (LALIF) appreciated LASODA and the Lagos State government for the partnership adding that it would help to ensure that, every person with Deaf-blindness in Nigeria is given full access to exercise their fundamental human rights, that they might be able to achieve their potential for self-actualisation and inclusive social development.
Okelola said, “This is a real landmark in the history of deaf-blindness in Nigeria because it makes Lagos State the first state in Nigeria to declare support and recognition of the global effort to create awareness about Usher-syndrome.
“With this declaration today, Lagos state government has set the pace and start the rail in motion to ensure that a massive awareness of this condition is done.”
With the urgent need to empower the people about this condition and to ensure the welfare of individuals with Usher Syndrome/Deafblindness in the society, LALIF, planning to work with her partners to train medical practitioners on the knowledge and skill reality of genetic testing and counselling for the identification, prevention and management of Usher-syndrome.