Wednesday, December 10, 2014

NEWS: God often blamed for child disability

Johannesburg - A punishment from God, witchcraft, anger of ancestral spirits, incestuous relationships and the misdemeanours of the mother.

These are the frequently stated causes for disability in children in Africa, according to a report, published by medical journal The Lancet, by the African Child Policy Forum.

Entitled “The African Report on Children with Disabilities: Promising starts and persisting challenges”, the report gives a description, analysis and synthesis of the situation of children with disabilities across the continent and provides several recommendations for policy and programme reforms.

The report says more than 1 billion people, or 15 percent of the world’s population, have a disability. The 2011 World Disability Report (by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank) estimated that there were between 93 and 150 million disabled children under 14 years of age.

The report states that in South Africa, the main contributors of childhood impairment and disability are illness; pre- and peri-natal problems such as genetic disorders and birth trauma; injuries; accidents; and violence.

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