Platform to strengthen the physically challenged debuts

A Platform to actively support and encourage people living with various forms and levels of disabilities, The World ThisAbility Campaign Lagos 2017, has debuted in Nigeria’s economic headquarters.

The project, organised recently by BJ Capital Limited and Love and Relate Foundation in Lagos, featured seminar, walk and concert consistent with the yearly United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) marked every December 3.

According to the Lead Convener, Bobjoe Paulinus, the term ThisAbility was created “out of the need to celebrate, empower and encourage people living with various forms of disabilities from a position of strength and not weakness; from a position of ‘I can’ and not ‘help me’ and finally from a position of empathy and not sympathy.”The Project Coordinator, Richard Njoku described the project as a paradigm shift geared at promoting the strengths of this special category of persons.

His words: “Our mission is to foster the societal integration, empowerment and protection of the physically challenged as well as their basic human rights,” he added. This year’s campaign was led with the hashtag: ‘#EmpowerWithEmpathy.’