6 Oct 2003

Fiji's disabled fail to get promised funds

4:51 pm on 6 October 2003

The Fiji Disabled People's Association says it has not received any further government money after it was forced to close its doors last week.

The association's secretary, Angeline Chand, says they held a meeting with the ministry of social welfare at the end of last week to see if their grant money for the year would be released.

She says there's been no response yet despite the ministry's permanent secretary telling the media that funding would be forthcoming.

Ms Chand says the FDPA will continue to request the money.

"They hope that something is going to come in in writing but they have gone ahead to plan a meeting to decide what would be the next step for the association to take . We were thinking last Friday if government does not respond maybe a petition because parliament is sitting, a petition down to the government would be the next step for us."

Ms Chand says the ministry told them that they weren't getting the grants because they hadn't received any acquittals for the year.

She says they've sent them in several times but have now resubmitted the necessary documents.

A private corporation has put in funding for the FDPA to re-open its doors.