Disability in Zimbabwe
Open-knowledge reference entry
Disability affects many people in Zimbabwe in both rural and urban areas. In spite of services provided by the government, philanthropists and welfare agencies, people with disabilities and their families often face several barriers. Philanthropist, Jairos Jiri, started services for people with disability in Zimbabwe in the 1940s. He is regarded as the father or founder of disability work in Zimbabwe.
Definition
In the Disabled Persons Act [Chapter 17:01] of 1995 (amended in 2000 and 2001), Zimbabwe government defines a person with a disability as:
...a person with physical, mental or sensory disability, including a visual, hearing or speech functional disability, which gives rise to physical, cultural or social barriers inhibiting him from participating at an equal level with other members of society in activities, undertakings or fields of employment that are open to other members of society.
Disabled people are one of the most marginalised, excluded and poorest groups in Zimbabwean society. Some people with disabilities in Zimbabwe are treated as second-class citizens. It is estimated about 900 000–1.4 million people have some sort of disability in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Demands in the constitution
In 2013, Zimbabwe modified its constitution.
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This entry incorporates text from “Disability in Zimbabwe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.