Dr Tom Blogs Again

It’s a long time since I posted anything here, but tonight I feel there is something important to share. I have some hesitation for two reasons:

1.       people might think I am banging the same drum again, because my topic is the challenges for people with disabilities here in Rukungiri

2.       I do not have any particular impairment or disability, so I cannot truly speak for those who do

Nevertheless, I can only write what I have seen and heard and I will leave it to my readers to judge.

This week I am visiting the Global Care office in Rukungiri with my wife Barbara. You can find her blog at darton2soroti.blogspot.co.uk. Today, after visiting rural schools and homes in the morning, we went with the local team to the offices of RAPID. Rukungiri District Association for People with Disability. (At the risk of being politically incorrect, I might say there is little that is literally rapid about the team that we met, as they all use walking aids.) This is a grassroots community organisation covering a large county. The reason for our visit was to increase understanding between the Global Care staff and the disability community, to ensure that we can work together more effectively.

The chairman said he much appreciated our coming, as often those who visit do not see the need to engage with disability. He and the other leaders work voluntarily for the disability community as there is no official funding for their organisation, though an office is provided. They are aware of more than 10,000 people in the district although this is undoubtedly an underestimate and there are no reliable census data. At times they can obtain grants, for example they were recently supported by Finnish organisation ABILIS for an income generation project. They encourage the formation of local groups in villages and parishes so that everyone can gain access to help.

We had a really good meeting, with plenty of honest emotion and some laughter, but it is daunting to hear about the unmet needs of these people. We heard again about how disability and poverty are linked. I see them like a pair of ghastly spectres chained together to destroy lives. Add to this the chilling effect of stigma and you have a really deadly mix. Even the clearly capable chairman said he finds himself ignored and excluded at district council meetings, simply because of his disability, and often finds it best to get a non-disabled council member to propose a motion on his behalf. Imagine then, the situation of a person in a village where the awareness of human rights may be even less.

Where funding is inadequate, all the wonderful national policies fail to be implemented on the ground. There is generally no help for those who need mobility aids, special needs education, or additional medical treatments. Moses from Global Care said that they don’t tend to receive applications for help from parents of children with disabilities who could attend the local schools with a bit of assistance. One of the best results of our meeting could be that information is shared between the two organisations so that people who could benefit from help from Global Care in the form of one-off grants or sponsorship, can be identified. The ability to help people with more serious and complex needs is still some way off, but must be considered if we are truly to reach out to the most vulnerable people.

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