Aujourd'hui le Maroc: Morocco determined to make handicapped persons full-fledged citizens

Morocco's Secretary of State in charge of family, solidarity and social action, Yasmina Baddou, said that Morocco is determined to make of its handicapped persons, full-fledged citizens, enjoying the society's full gamut of rights.

In an interview published, on Tuesday, by Moroccan paper in French "Aujourd'hui le Maroc," Baddou said her department, while endeavouring to prevent different sorts of disability, will fight in partnership with other concerned departments diseases, considered as the major causes of disability.

Commending actions led by NGOs in this field, Baddou noted that NGOs are "unavoidable bridges" at the grass-root level.

"We are currently working on a data base that will feature all NGOs working in the handicapped people sector as well as in sheltering centers," she added.

A web site will be launched to help handicapped persons and their families have all necessary information, she said.

Touching on the government's strategy in terms of solidarity, she said that her department's actions will zero in on a certain social category, as well as specific institutions like those of aged people, handicapped persons, homeless and abandoned children.

The scope of our action will also touch the fight against social scourges like poverty, with the aim to instill a new culture of solidarity, based on the evolution of the Moroccan society and the challenges it is called upon to meet, she said.