Not Less Able

The conversation on the differently abled has been in the limelight thanks to the set up of  The National Council for Persons with Disabilities in December 2004 following the enactment of The Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD) Bill 2003.

This term differently abled was coined by the US Democratic National Committee in the early 1980s as a more acceptable and politically correct term than handicapped (or, in the UK, disabled). The adoption of the term is currently being adopted in Kenya with most people still using disabled. Disabled isn’t preferable as it denotes a lack of ability and yet most differently abled persons are able to live an active and useful life.

I attended Fatuma’s Voice (a poetry and music event with a themed discussion) on Saturday 16th August and the conversation was on the differently abled in Kenya. Kenya has come a long way in how disability is treated at a national level. However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. According to statistics, as high as 1 in 20 Kenyans suffers from a disability. This is not a small number and hence there needs to be sensitization of the public.

An organization doing some good work around disability in Kenya, is The Action Foundation of Kenya, an NGO that provides support to children in marginalized areas living with disability and their families. The organization was founded by a young inspiring lady, Maria Omare.

The conversation at Fatuma’s Voice included a brief of what the NGO does presented by Maria and testimonies from differently abled persons, some that work with Maria. One of the people that gave his testimony is a young man, Dalmas Otieno, a Director at Action Foundation. He lost his lower leg at the age of four after a car accident. With support from his family, he has gone on to have a pretty normal life. He is an active swimmer, the captain of the National Amputee Football Club and a dancer at Pamoja Dance Group.

The next speaker was Lydia, mother of a boy with cerebral palsy whose condition has improved thanks to the physical therapy he has been receiving at the Action Foundation’s center in Kibera. Prisca Akumu, the administrative assistant at The Action Foundation center gave her story of how she became differently abled due to contracting Polio at the age of 5.  The last but definitely not the least  speaker was Jack Odhiambo, a reformed street boy who lost his arms in 2002 after a train accident. He has since been able to piece his life together and went back to school to study theology.

It was an eye opening presentation. We have a way to go especially in a country where a lot of children that are physically or mentally disabled are mistreated by being hidden, denied food or physically abused. We all must realize that disability isn’t something that happens to other people but could just as easily happen to us or someone close to us. There are many that have been in accidents and lost limbs. It’s incredibly easy to be one of them with the high rate of car accidents in Kenya. Also, we should be interested in this issues simply because the differently abled are people like us and should be accorded the opportunities to live life to the fullest.

An interesting angle that was explored is that disability can also be a complex. A lot of people are whole physically but have a complex that they cannot reach their goals. They find excuses to not follow their dreams and apportion blame for their stagnation to everyone but themselves.

The ‘Where’s Your Ferrari” joke has been told and retold but just in case you’ve never heard it, here is my version. “Sam and Dan were friends. Sam was a heavy smoker. He’d been smoking for fourty years. Dan was not a smoker and in fact got very irritated by Sam’s smoking. He got fed up one day and told Sam that if he had not been spending money on cigarettes for those fourty years, he’d have bought a Ferrari with that money. Sam gave Dan a contemplative look and asked him, “Where’s your Ferrari?”

The presentation and subsequent conversation at Fatuma’s Voice left me challenged. There are countless examples of people with disability who have gone on to achieve amazing things. They don’t use their disability as a crutch. We who have no disabilities should use this as inspiration to make our dreams come true. Disability is not Inability.

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The conversation on the differently abled has been in the limelight thanks to the set up of  The National Council for Persons with Disabilities in December 2004 following the enactment of The Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD) Bill 2003. This term differently abled was coined by the US Democratic National...