(MENAFN- The Peninsula) QNA
The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs yesterday inaugurated a database for the elderly and persons with disabilities aimed at providing all their services and needs and benefit from their efforts and experiences in implementing the comprehensive development process in Qatar in all fields.
On the occasion, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi, said there is a new draft law on persons with disabilities, which includes all their rights, pointing out that the launch of this database paves the way for the activation of this law upon its issuance, especially since it contains all the data of persons with disabilities, through which they can be followed in all health, social, educational and various services provided to them.
According to the draft law, a National Committee will be formed to bring together all concerned stakeholders in charge of the elderly and persons with disabilities in both government and institutions of public interest, the Minister said, noting that its role would be to unify mechanisms of action and achieve the integration among all parties and individuals to benefit from the services provided by State institutions in order to serve these categories.
The new database, which has been completed and updated by the Ministry, contains all the data relating to groups registered within the Ministry, whose number exceed 12,000 people as a first phase to be followed by other stages, including data integration, connectivity with other agencies as well as conducting statistics to serve these categories, Dr Al Nuaimi added.
The Minister stressed that this database is one of the main pillars of policies and strategies for all government agencies in the State and it also facilitates the access of the elderly and persons with disabilities to the required services while saving effort and time.
The database has been set up to include services, important sites, reports, statistics and numbers of older persons, persons with disabilities and it is linked with all State agencies to standardise and update the data periodically and continuously, the Minister said, stressing that it is aimed at serving these groups in all educational, rehabilitative and health care fields and also providing jobs in the public and private sectors while taking advantage of their capacities for State-building.
The new database for elderly and persons with disabilities comes within the framework of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's directives on providing these important segments of society with all services and needs, taking into consideration their important role in building the comprehensive renaissance of Qatar in all fields, the Minister stressed.
In line with the directives of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani in this regard, work is under way to allocate service offices for the elderly and persons with disabilities in all ministries, government bodies and institutions to clear and complete all services relating to them.
The Ministry is working on qualifying candidates, who will work in these offices, by offering them specialised training courses through the Institute of Public Administration in the Ministry in order to enable them to deal with these groups and to achieve optimal and preferential services for the elderly and persons with disabilities.
All government service agencies have been approached to train their staff and provide them the skills of speaking the Sign Language and means of dealing with the elderly, the Minister said, adding that special individual cards will be issued for persons with a disability allowing them to benefit from the services provided by the Ministry and other State bodies.
In this regard, the Minister referred to the law that obliges all government agencies to allocate two percent of jobs for persons with disabilities, referring in this respect to the working group which joined forces with a committee composed of representatives of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health in order to identify jobs that can be occupied by them while ensuring their safety.
On means of taking advantage of the elderly' s professional experience, especially the retirees, the Minister shed light on the mechanism in place aimed at benefiting of their cumulative experiences through contracting them as collaborators in the field of training and rehabilitation of new employees or involving them in specialised committees formed at the state's level.
Thanks to this mechanism, the elderly shall be paid financial rewards for their cooperation without deducting any amount from their pensions, the Minister explained, pointing out that any employee who reaches the age of retirement and whose salary is less than the allocated social insurance should be paid the difference between his salary and the allocated amount by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs.
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