The Daily Star - NGOs for disabled threaten strikes over state funding, December 23rd 2011

By Van Meguerditchian

BEIRUT: Organizations working to advance the rights of the disabled called on the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati to increase funds earmarked for the groups, warning that demonstrations and open-ended strikes could be launched next year if their request is not met.

“Our 56 organizations take care of 8,000 disabled children and we will all escalate our protest through open-ended strikes if the government fails to commit to its duties and fails to pay the funds that have been agreed upon,” Raif Choueiri, president of the Permanent Coordination Office of NGOs, said Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference at the Press Federation Thursday, Choueiri said that the strikes would affect the level of care provided to some 8,000 disabled children.

Annual government funds provided to the NGOs in the service of disabled Lebanese have remained unchanged for years despite inflation, as the current level of funding is based on a cost appraisal formulation that was carried out in 2004.

Choueiri said that he hoped the government would recognize the urgent need to support families of the disabled and organizations taking care of disabled children.

“We hope that the government won’t make us take these dangerous steps ... we know the damage that will result in the lives of the children due to the strikes,” said Choueiri.

Sami Hammoud, who heads an NGO and serves as secretary-general of the National Association of Parents and Institutions for the Disabled, told The Daily Star that a joint committee, which includes members from some six ministries and NGO members, formulated a new cost appraisal for the year 2011.

“Some LL30 billion in annual funds should be given to the NGOs as of this year [based on the 2011 cost appraisal],” said Hammoud, explaining that the funds should be divided between the National Association of Parents and Institutions for the Disabled, which comprises 44 NGOs, and the Permanent Coordination Office, which is made up of 12 other organizations.

Hammoud said organizations depend heavily on government funding, but the current level is not keeping pace with raising costs, which he estimates to have doubled in the past seven years.

“We can mostly depend on the funds provided by the government because an agreement between the NGOs and the government states that the NGOs are not allowed to charge children’s parents for the services provided,” Hammoud explained.

The longstanding dispute over funds between the NGOs for the disabled and the government has often threatened the continuation of the NGOs’ work.

Under former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government, the Accounting Department requested a cut in the funds given to the NGOs, but an initiative by former Social Affairs Minister Salim Sayegh helped delay a confrontation by overturning the Accounting Department’s decision last summer.

Hammoud acknowledged that Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour has greatly supported the organizations and has succeeded in helping formulate a new cost appraisal for the government. “Abu Faour has agreed to our demands and has placed them on the Cabinet’s agenda for approval,” he said.

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