Malé City Councilors Propose Weekly Home Visits to Support Caregivers of Children with Disabilities

Malé City Councilors have proposed that councilors visit homes of children with disabilities once a week to assist in caring for them, a proposal raised at the council's general meeting today by Fatima Zahiyya (Zaiya), member of the Hulhumalé North constituency. One of the agenda items discussed at the meeting was the difficulty in providing services due to the lack of information about people with disabilities and children in the council. Discussions were held on the importance of collecting such information and how to organise it, and Zahiyya expressed her views on the matter. Zahiyya said she has observed the conditions of those who care for people with various disabilities or their assistants, noting that their lives are very difficult. She said assisting them is important as part of the commitment to provide ease to citizens and deliver services. In this regard, Zahiyya proposed that Malé City Councilors, along with members and teams from the Water and Sewerage Company (WDSC), visit the homes of people with disabilities residing in the constituency they represent; assist in caring for people with disabilities, such as taking them to parks; and make such visits once a week. "Then those gentlemen (those who take care of people with disabilities) will get some rest. We are here to serve them with care," Zahiyya said. At the meeting, Ahmed Qaleeb, member of the Hulhumalé Central constituency, spoke about maintaining lifts in social housing flats where people with disabilities reside. He said that in some social housing units in that area of Hulhumalé there are no elevators for going up and down, causing significant difficulties for such individuals when moving downstairs. He said such arrangements have not been made yet because HDC has not provided support in this matter. "However, we want to provide comfort to those gentlemen. Considering the technology of this era, [maintaining lifts] is not impossible," Qaleeb said. "On the other hand, not everyone of such individuals lives in every apartment. We want to do this during the current term of the council." Qaleeb stated that if information about people with disabilities is collected by the council, it would make doing this easier.