By Providence Ayanfeoluwa

The Chairman of Ifako Ijaiye Local Government, Prince Usman Hamzat, in collaboration with Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria, has called for support for children born with Down syndrome.

They made the call during a fitness walk in commemoration of the Down Syndrome Foundation Awareness Month themed: “Embrace Inclusion – Transform Lives”

Hamzat said that Down syndrome is not a challenge but a special ability, explaining that the regular people cannot do what they do.

He said: “I have seen them make hair, shoes, cloth, among others. Children born with Down syndrome should not be seen as a setback but opportunity to do greater things in life.

“There is a wrong perception about politicians, our first responsibility is to ensure we take care of the most vulnerable in our society, we were elected to do that and that is what we are doing. People generally should ensure that the most vulnerable in the society are taken care of and not just politicians. People should endeavour to support the most vulnerable,” he said.

Also speaking, President of Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria, Mrs. Rose Mordi, said children born with Down syndrome have been left behind for so long in Nigeria even as she appealed that they should be properly brought into the scheme of things.

Mordi said: “When you embrace inclusion you are taking care of everybody irrespective of any challenge they might be having, especially the vulnerable who have been left behind for so long. And when you include them into the scheme of things, you would transform their lives. A lot of them have never been to school or included in social activities, even within the family environment they are left behind. We are advocating for them to be properly included in every aspect of life.

“None of them are being offered employment as we speak, that is because they have not been trained. What we do is to train them first, we are training them to be employable but we are asking that we should be supported to be able to put all the structures on ground to properly train them so that they would be ready to be absorbed into the employment market.

“The challenges of taking care of children born with Down syndrome are enormous. They need to be kept alive and healthy; they need to be trained and employed, that has not been happening. “We have been facing this challenge all along, we need funds to keep them alive, 60 percent of children born with Down syndrome are exposed to congenital heart defect and most of them die very young or at birth, they die not because they have Down syndrome but because the health challenges have not been addressed,” he said.