- Title: IVORY COAST: Madame Houphouet-Boigny opens festival for handicapped people
- Date: 16th December 1981
- Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST(VISNEWS - KOSSI AMEGAN) GV Banner proclaiming Handicapped Day, PAN TO people at ceremony SV Boxes of gifts being laid on ground PAN TO Madame Houphouet-Boigny, wife of President CU & SV handicapped people dancing. (2 SHOTS) SV Handicapped people watching dance CU & SV Madame Houphouet-Boigny watching with other dignitaries. (2 SHOTS) SV Woman selling T-shirts People watching SV People dancing and Madame Houphouet-Boigny dancing. (2 SHOTS) CU Madame Houphouet-Boigny cuts Ribbon Sv Crowd SV Madame Houphouet-Boigny touring stand. (4 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 31st December 1981 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Cote d'Ivoire
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA10MQ432TRH9VF7U7H9CPEBDHN
- Story Text: INTRODUCTION: As the International Year of the Disabled draws to a close a large festival for handicapped people has been held in the Ivory Coast.The event was opened by Madame Therese Houphouet-Boigny, wife of the country's President, and was dedicated to disabled people throughout the developing world.
SYNOPSIS: The banners and flags drew the crowds to the festival just outside Abidjan, capital of the West African state.The day was organised to make people aware of the plight of handicapped people.
Many gifts, including wheelchairs and artificial limbs, were donated by the country's business community.Madame Therese Houphouet-Boigny, wife of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, was among many dignatories at the ceremony.
The purpose of the festival, as of the Year of the Disabled world-wide, was to help integrate handicapped people into the community at large.An exhibition of dancing by those suffering from physical disabilities was cheered by others among the crowd.
Tee-shirts and other goods made by the handicapped were sold to help raise money for disabled people in the Ivory Coast and elsewhere in the continent.
One of the highlights for the large crowd was an exhibition of traditional and modern dancing with music provided by the Ivorian Television Orchestra.The President's wife and other special guests joined in a celebration of solidarity with the handicapped.Throughout the year there have been lectures, seminars, and television features in the Ivory Coast designed to educate people of the problems faced by disabled people.
Madame Houphouet-Boigny officially opened the festival, one of several opened fund-raising events which have included a football match between two deaf sides.
Although the crowd clearly enjoyed the day they were reminded, in a message from the President, of the huge scale of the misery experienced by Africa's disabled.He said that an eighth of the world's handicapped children live in the continent and of the 500 million disabled persons in the world, tow thirds were living in the developing states.The festival helped bring their plight home to the people of the Ivory Coast.
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