President Anthony Carmona continued to express support for hiring the disabled during his first official tour of the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) last week.Impressed by the efforts being made at the NCPD, the President promised to lobby companies, chambers of commerce and groups such as the Rotary and Lions clubs to bring greater awareness of the need to provide employment to the disabled.
President Carmona singled out Spanish energy company Repsol, which operates locally, for its policy of recruiting at least three per cent of its staff from the ranks of skilled people functioning with a disability.The NCPD's CEO called on the President also to lobby for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which would promote the need to improve the attitude of business to people with disabilities through law.
It wasn't the first time that President Carmona has expressed concern about employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Speaking at the launch of the Social Integration of Persons with Disability national awareness and education campaign in May last year, he said it was time to see such employment candidates "as valuable individuals with rights and freedoms who are capable of making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent, as well as active members of society."
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