The project to build a community hub for persons with a disability in Naxxar has been blasted by the president of Amputees4Amputees, Amy Camilleri Zahra, who said the project will result in the “ghettoization” of persons with a disability.
Project Reach, a community Hub for disabled persons is planned to be up and running by 2022.
On Monday, Parliamentary Secretary Anthony Agius Decelis explained that excavation works have begun, and that the hub will have the first ever one-stop-shop for persons with disability; where people can go with any queries related to their disability, or with queries for a family member who lives with a disability.
The €32 million, he said, will include a hostel which will welcome foreigners with disabilities coming to Malta for a holiday.
But the project did not go down well with Camilleri Zahra, herself a person with a disability.
In a Facebook post, the university lecturer said “Just lovely … because if I’m a disabled person and coming to Malta on holiday, that’s where I’d want to stay – in a ghetto, just for disabled people and not in a hotel.”
“Flash news: When I go abroad I look for hotels with an accessible room and not hotels for disabled people like in some ghetto. That’s what all other disabled people do when going abroad. That’s what other disabled people coming to Malta do, too,” she continued.
Objection letters filed in 2017 had stated that the concept of a disability hub detaches them from the community, and goes against the provisions of the Equal Opportunities (Persons and Disability) Act and CRPD guidelines which recommend that persons with disability not be physically segregated.”
The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability did not object to the project.
