Minister Al-Zaouri: The celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is an important opportunity to raise community awareness of disability issues and needs

Ministry Media / Aden

Wednesday, 3 December 2025

Text of the speech delivered by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Zaouri, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated annually on December 3rd:

Today, on December 3rd—just as we do every year—we celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On this global occasion, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all persons with disabilities in our country as they mark their international day.

Celebrating this day, which has become an annual global tradition, represents an important opportunity to raise community awareness about the issues and needs of persons with disabilities. It is also an opportunity to work toward finding solutions to their challenges, ensuring that they enjoy all their rights, and supporting them both materially and psychologically. Furthermore, it allows us to enhance their living conditions and empower them to access healthcare and private-sector opportunities.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor continues to provide care for persons with disabilities through the Fund for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled. Despite the fund’s limited financial resources, it continues to play a leading role in supporting students enrolled in schools and universities, providing medical and therapeutic assistance, offering prosthetic devices, wheelchairs, and hearing aids, as well as facilitating surgical operations both inside and outside the country. We are also working to expand the fund’s activities to cover various fields. Additionally, the fund provides operational budgets and financial support for activities carried out by disability associations and aims to expand its services once it receives additional revenue and financial .assistance

One of the ministry’s priorities has been to provide medical and therapeutic services for persons with disabilities through the project to build a specialized hospital for persons with special needs in the capital, Aden. We are currently coordinating with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to officially approve the hospital. We have also received commitments from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center to equip the facility with medical devices and technical equipment. The hospital will be a major national achievement for the southern governorates and liberated areas. The building includes operating rooms for various surgical procedures, inpatient wards, a physiotherapy center, reception halls, and an accommodation center for disabled children from outside Aden who come for treatment and care, in addition to administrative offices and a kitchen.

We also succeeded in obtaining a Cabinet decision to increase the fees collected for the fund as a replacement for the previous fee system. However, the decision has not yet been implemented, and no solutions have been presented to enable the fund to fulfill its duties and obligations toward persons with disabilities, in accordance with the Law on the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled, the decisions of the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs, and international conventions related to persons with disabilities, their integration into society, their care, and their economic and social empowerment.

The ministry and the fund work in partnership with various international organizations and local civil society organizations operating in the field of disability, implementing programs and projects that target this important segment of society in the areas of education, health, and more.

In conclusion, I once again congratulate our children and citizens with disabilities on their international day, which coincides this year with our southern people’s celebration of the 58th anniversary of the glorious National Independence Day of November 30, 1967.

Wishing you all the best every year.

Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Zaouri

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor