Local body for persons with disabilities nominated for Zerocall25 Award

Out of more than 700 nominees, the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) was recently shortlisted for a prestigious ZeroCall25 award in recognition of the work that the organization is doing to promote employment for persons with disabilities.

From 2016 to now, over 650 persons with disabilities have been trained in various vocational areas, and 50 percent of them are now employed on a full-time or part-time basis.

Ganesh Singh, Programme Director for GCOPD, told the News Room in an in-studio interview recently that the employment opportunities came about through vocational skills training, job preparation training, and general academic development through their CSEC and remedial education programmes.

“Just being shortlisted for a Zero Project award is a significant achievement because it provides the organization with an international platform to promote our work and also to build our network so that we can benefit from technical support and funding from different agencies,” Singh expressed.

One of the main themes of GCOPD is promoting the financial independence of persons with disabilities, and over the past three years, he said they have made a concerted effort to get more persons with disabilities employed.