Kuwait: Jasour – News Desk
The Kuwaiti Disability Authority continues to implement the recommendations of the Educational, Health, and Youth Committee in the Cabinet regarding the development of educational buildings for special needs schools.
The General Authority for Special Needs Affairs, represented by the medical, psychological, and social services sector and care centers, is finalizing the new mechanism that will expedite the distribution of hundreds of delayed requests for assistive devices for special needs individuals, such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, and other equipment. The distribution is expected to start before the end of the first quarter of this year.
This mechanism, which is in its final stages at the “Tenders Committee,” is expected to reduce the waiting period for receiving devices from years to months. Dr. Amthal Al-Huwaila, Minister of Social Affairs, Family, and Childhood, has given this issue great importance, closely monitoring it with the leaders of the “Disability Authority” and relevant government agencies to end the suffering of thousands of special needs individuals caused by the delay in receiving their assistive devices, which has been a longstanding problem for the authority.
Sources revealed that the total number of special needs individuals in Kuwait, across various types of disabilities (physical, visual, intellectual, motor, auditory, psychological, educational, developmental, and others), exceeds 69,000. The new mechanism will benefit over 32,000 special needs individuals, including 15,048 with mobility impairments, 11,777 with physical disabilities, and 5,472 with visual impairments. This mechanism will eliminate the traditional documentation cycle that was a primary cause of delays in distributing devices to eligible recipients.
