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By Chemist Mafuba
ARTISTS have come up with a strategy, which the Constitution Select Committee can use for dealing with issues of disability effectively.
Zimbabwe Women Writers have recommended that the new constitution should reach out to people at grassroots level through appropriate channels. The women stopped short of suggesting that the state should pay mothers caring for their special children, who, in any case, should be a responsibility of the state. Nurses who terrorise the girls who would be seeking treatment at state hospitals should be dealt with. Steps should be taken through the right education to enable children living with disabilities to overcome stigma, which is rife in homes and society.
People have to change their attitude if children living with disabilities have to have a fair deal on equal opportunities. The women aired their views in a book recounting the woes they endure in a society which doesn’t care about their children. The editors of In the Wake of Our Shadows were Audrey Charamba and Eresina Hwede, who worked under the auspices of the Women Writers’ Club.
“The constitution making process,” said national co-ordinator Sheila Chidyausiku, “should highlight issues of women and disabilities. The mothers whose children should benefit from the law are not aware of them, as they have not been translated into their languages and distributed widely.
“These women don’t know their rights due to lack of education and they don’t have radios through which they can listen to relevant programmes. They can’t read the news sheets for them to deal with their own specific needs in a meaningful way. The women and girls fear going to hospitals and clinics as nurses and cleaners scold them, as though they are nothing. It is attitudes such as this, which act as serious barriers to early treatment. These mothers don’t know how they can get proper health care or the services that are there for their welfare, such as psychological services, health and rehabilitation.”
Chidyausiku is now late.
The book reveals how the people of Zimbabwe are not interested in discussing issues that have to do disability. There is a feeling that somebody else should do it. It has been noted that a lot of pious statements which are made during workshops about the need to put issues of disability together end up being empty words.
Society would do well to take an interest in how mothers cope when a special child is born into the family. The members of Zimbabwe Women Writers didn’t know how far they would go in changing the lives of special children when they decided to put together the mass of experience which is there.
The experience gained from that exercise is sobering to say the least. It calls for a concerted effort from all the people with a conscience to make a difference in the life of both mother and child. People who have the privilege of being able to walk, to see and so forth should be thankful for that. They should show their appreciation of what they are able to do by helping less fortunate children.
The stories in Our Shadows are about disabilities, deserted mothers, medical care, communication, counselling and economic woes. They deal a blow on myths and beliefs, which are driving society to take special children for granted. There is shocking evidence on how difficult it is to see into the grey areas, where mothers battle to make the lives of their children bearable under the most difficult circumstances imaginable.
The people who are affected most when dealing with these grey areas are women, while men could do more in giving a helping hand. Social scientists should probe the illusive issue of how the scourge of stigma, which is rife, can be stamped out.
“Stigma,” bemoans Eresina Hwede, “cuts across the racial, social and geographical areas. In these stories, stigma is given a human face. It is labelled as recklessness and society gives it names to make it tolerable.
“Disability, then, is seen as something which is not commonly found among people. Some men refuse to look after their children, saying disability was not in their families.”
The disturbing aspect in the book has to do with how struggling mothers accept their lot with an air of hopelessness. The mothers look on disability as a burden, which they are fated to carry on their own, while the state and the people who should help them are nowhere to be seen. The absence of a national programme, which makes people, starting from school, accept special children as a cog in society worsens the situation on the ground.
There is need to find a way of making people see that mothers, in looking after their special children, are making an essential contribution to society. The women tell heart-rending stories about how their marriages broke up when a special child was born in the family. Some of them are ostracised as if they asked to have a child in that state. The snag has to do with when the child should go for treatment.
There are parents who delay taking a child for treatment, thinking that a miracle will happen and the child will get well. The disability can be arrested if the child gets treatment on time. The crisis that stigma has brought into the homes and in society is felt throughout the pages of Our Shadows. It is not clear at what point stigma begins in the life of a child and at what point it comes to an end – if at all it ever comes to an end.
The editors tried as much as possible to leave stories as the women told them, so that the reader can see the immensity and seriousness of the problem. The aim is to touch the heart of the reader so that they can do what they can to try to put a smile on the face of the special child in their community. The mothers are also not aware that they stigmatise their own children.
“There are five of us at home,” they say. “I’m talking of my two children, Ishmael, my husband and I. My children love Ishmael very much. They play with him all the time.”
Though Ishmael is her child, he is not seen as part of the family. The other children have learnt to live with him. There is the attitude of them and us in the same family that Ishmael invokes with his presence. Society doesn’t see anything wrong with this, yet it is one way of stigmatising the child. The family should use words making the special child have a sense of belonging.
That child feels shut out from the family and from society when people use derogatory language within his or her hearing. People are not aware that they are perpetuating these shortcomings. The challenge for the reader is to find a way of stamping out stigma where they see it. The people should have the right attitude when dealing with mothers caring for children with disabilities. They unconsciously use derogatory terms such as “you are mad”. There is no excuse for it.
“It is our hope,” said Audrey Charamba, “that the stories ignite in you the desire to contribute to improving the life of both the mother and the child.”
Edline Shumba says her daughter Tapuwa has problems speaking.
“I always include Tapuwa in my prayers,” she said. “She can’t get a place at the right school. I pray to God that Tapuwa gets a sponsor. I wouldn’t be able to afford the fees. Tapuwa should be in a Grade Two. I don’t have the resources, so she keeps repeating Grade One. It’s not doing her any good. It’s only that we can’t stop her from going to school. She will be with other children there. At least she will be trying to write something.”
Edline added: “I should say God blessed my children. I usually come with something for Tapuwa from (my) groceries.
“Her siblings understand that the present is hers. She is the youngest. Tapuwa likes sharing, so she shares with them what I would have brought for her. I pray to God that He keeps blessing my children. They have accepted Tapuwa as one of them. I haven’t had problems with other children calling Tapuwa names. There are some who say she speaks in tongues. I can’t describe her language, too. Other people haven’t been looking down on me because of Tapuwa. The members of our church like Tapuwa very much. I would like Tapuwa to learn sign language, but I don’t know where – if she can find a sponsor.”
Sheila Chidyausiku described what is needed to rehabilitate children living with disabilities.
“Access to information on HIV and Aids is crucial,” she said.
“The need to be informed on prevention, treatment, access to ARVs and mitigation programmes is paramount. Getting Drugs for disabilities such as epilepsy is a big challenge. The same can be said of wheelchairs and hearing aids. Most commuter omnibuses either ignore or charge twice for the passenger and the wheelchair. This is discrimination.”
Stigma stems from within the family, reaching out to the community. There is an outcry in the family when a child is born with disability. The mother is accused of baseless accusations. The man can divorce the woman, abandon her or ostracise her. The woman can also be accused of being possessed with avenging spirits, which cause disabilities. Women are disadvantaged on three levels. Women have always been marginalised in comparison with their male counterparts. The people with mental challenges are prone to being raped, as they are unable to speak for themselves.
Irresponsible traditional healers tell people living with HIV and Aids that they will be cured if they can rape a disabled person. The people have been told that they can be rich. There are numerous instances of parents refusing to accept an in-law who is blind or has albinism. The mothers develop a low esteem of themselves when they give birth to a disabled child and they fear what society will say about them.
“More than 90 percent of care givers are women,” observed Sheila Chidyausiku.
“The girl child is denied education. The disabled children are deemed useless and burdensome. They are seen as worthy for appeasing avenging spirits.”
The programmes for community-based care should provide equal opportunities, reduce poverty and facilitate acceptance by the community.
The state and non-governmental organisations are playing a crucial role in trying to provide rehabilitation where possible.
“I sincerely hope stories in this book will enable advocacy for the empowerment of a large, forgotten group of women and their children in society,” said Chidyausiku,
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