Disability Culture

Disability culture, as the process of embracing human ability differences; should be put in more extensive emphasize in our societies, particularly my home country Tanzania. People think differently about disability and articulate negative myths over it. As a process of en-culturing the concept of disability, the national curriculum should include matters about people with disabilities from elementary to university levels.

Disability Culture will enable people from our societies think inclusively in every aspect of human life. Nothing is impossible provided there are ready-made environment suitable for every individual. Let's think newly, act in novel way, and create an inclusive society for all.

Disabled person at games and sports moments

Barrier path for wheel-chaired users

Rais Kikwete anatambua vizuri dhana ya ulemavu

Siku ya tarehe 9/7/2014, Mheshimiwa Rais J. M. Kikwete alitembelea Chuo Kikuu Cha Kumbukumbu ya Sebastian Kolowa (SEKOMU). Pamoja na mambo mengine aliyozungumzia, alisema wazi wazi na kwa tahadhari kubwa kuwa; "Ulemavu ni maumbile ya kawaida kwa binadamu, na watu wenye ulemavu wataendelea kuzaliwa."

Jambo la muhimu kwa yote ni serikali kuwezesha wanaharakati wenye uwezo wa kutoa elimu kwenye jamii juu ya dhana ya ulemavu na jamii. Watu wana dhana potofu juu ya ulemavu, na inafika mahali tunashuhudia ukatili wanaofanyiwa ndugu zetu albino.

Mhe. Rais Kikwete akisalimiana na
mkuu wa wilaya ya Lushoto 
Bwana Majid Mwanga

Mhe. Rais Kikwete akiongea na jumuia ya SEKOMU

Makamu mkuu wa chuo cha SEKOMU, Dr. Aneth Munga akimkabidhi Rais kikombe chenye nembo ya SEKOMU

Wanafunzi wa shule ya wasioona ya Irente wakisoma risala kwa rais

Mhe. Rais Kikwete akizindua rasmi ukumbi wa mihadhara wa Benjamin Willium Mkapa SEKOMU

Get To Know Who Kills Our Albinos

• It is widely believed that people seeking quick wealth and political power spend huge amounts of money contracting killers to supply albino body parts, which are ultimately used as charms.

• The killings are a cross-border business and cites the case of five-month-old Noela Neema, who was abducted in December 2010 in Ruyigi in Burundi and taken across the border to Tanzania--where she was subsequently hacked to death for her body parts

Dar es Salaam. Assaults on albinos have been in the media spotlight for the past seven years, yet the only thing we know for sure is this:  They are attacked, mutilated and killed for their body parts--presumably for use in witchcraft concoctions. The people behind these inhuman and callous acts remain unknown even though investigators have arrested, interrogated and prosecuted many people reportedly hired to attack albinos.

So who are contracting people to mutilate, kill and--as a consequence--create widespread fear and insecurity among people with albinism? Campaigners against albino attacks and those affected believe politicians and the wealthy are the main culprits. “I have recorded witchdoctors telling me that politicians are the main clients of those who sell albino body parts,” says Ms Vicky Ntetema, the executive director of Under The Same Sun, an NGO fighting discrimination against people with albinism in Tanzania. It is widely believed that people seeking quick wealth and political power spend huge amounts of money contracting killers to supply albino body parts, which are ultimately used as charms.

People with albinism are living in great fear as the country braces for civic elections in October and the general election next year, according to Ms Ntetema. Statistics show a sudden surge in such killings--from eight 2007 to 28 in 2008--just a year before civic elections were held. There were 12 killings in 2009, a year before the general election.

Campaigners against the killings see this pattern as the link between the attacks and political elections. Already, three brutal attacks and one attempted assault have taken place in the 12 days since August 5, two months before a local election and a year ahead of general elections.

The director of information and public relations at the Tanzania Albino Society (TAS), Mr Josephat Tona, says it has always been their stand that politicians are at the centre of the killings. He adds: “They cannot escape blame. We have said before, and we are saying it again, that the fact that the killings tend to rise when elections near is a clear indication that politicians are behind  them.”

The albino community has its own doubts about the political will to save their lives, arguing that it has always taken too long for politicians to declare a stand against the killings and it is always too late when they decide. “We cannot freely do anything to support our lives because we live in great fear and frustration,” he told The Citizen on Saturday.

According to Ms Ntetema, the rise in attacks on albinos when elections approach in some neighbouring countries does not come as a surprise. She argues that the killings are a cross-border business and cites the case of five-month-old Noela Neema, who was abducted in December 2010 in Ruyigi in Burundi and taken across the border to Tanzania--where she was subsequently hacked to death for her body parts.

In November 2008, a man was caught trying to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo with the head of an albino child in his luggage. He told police he was taking it to a businessman in Congo, who would pay him according to the weight of the head.

When neighbouring Kenya held elections in February, there were reports of “traditional healers” from Tanzania camping there.

They said they had been invited to that country by politicians, who apparently hoped they could influence the results. A witchdoctor who was interviewed by The Daily Nation in Nairobi in June 2012 said their clients included renowned Kenyan and Tanzanian politicians.

Between January 31 and February 15, as the elections neared, there were four attacks on albinos in Tanzania. “There is no doubt there is a link between political elections in Tanzania and some neighbouring countries with increasing attacks on albinos,” says Ms Ntetema. “With the civic and general elections approaching in Tanzania, we can expect more attacks and kidnappings.”

TAS is accusing the government of failing to provide security to its members and shaming those behind the attacks. “The one to blame is the government,” says TAS Secretary Ziada Nsembo. “It has all the instruments to deal with witchdoctors, attackers and buyers of our body parts but it seems there is no political will to do so.”

Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Isaya Mngulu told The Citizen on Saturday that the  police force has no proof linking politicians and businessmen with attacks on albinos and challenged those making the allegations to come to the assistance of the police. Said the DCI: “We have no proof that prominent politicians and wealthy individuals are behind the attacks. If they know the real culprits, why don’t they give us their names so we can take action?”

But even as the DCI says he has yet to establish a link between politicians and the attacks, United Nations human rights official Alicia Loudono said on her recent trip to Tanzania that virtually everyone linked the recent attacks to the presidential election set for October 2015.

She added: “There is this common knowledge that attacks on people with albinism rise when there is [an] election.  One of the reasons they say is that there are some politicians that use witchcraft for gaining power.  This is part of their belief…for winning elections, for being more rich.”

Since 2006, there have been 151 murders and attacks on people with albinism in Tanzania. But Under The Same Sun believes that most attacks go unreported.

Only five per cent (about eight) of the 151 cases have gone to prosecution stage in the courts so far. “Law enforcement and the judiciary have been impotent in addressing this human rights crisis,” says Mr Peter Ash, the founder and chief executive officer of Under the Same Sun. Tanzania has  the ratio of 1:1,400 albinos.

The case of Swaziland

In May last year, Swaziland’s albinos appealed to their government for protection ahead of elections later in the year, fearing their body parts would be harvested by candidates seeking success. “I can warn both adults and parents of albino children to take extra care during these election days,” said Skhumbuzo  Mndvoti, an albino community leader living in the southern town of Nhlangano. As in other parts of Africa, ritual killings are common in Swaziland--with witchdoctors using limbs or body parts as amulets.

Mndvoti accuses witchdoctors of misleading people into believing that using human body parts will make them win seats in parliament or prosper in business. Aspiring Nhlangano MP Mthokozisi Kunene admits that aspiring politicians are prime suspects in ritual attacks and killings.

The Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRGG) and the European Union (EU) have issued statements condemning a recent wave of attacks.

Said EU Ambassador to Tanzania Filiberto Sebregondi: “The occurrence of the attacks represents a disturbing trend. I am respectfully looking at Tanzania’s leadership to address these issues and show people living with albinism they are neither ignored, nor abused for their condition.”

CGGHR has called on the government to conduct in-depth investigations to identify those sponsoring and executing the barbaric acts.

Source: The Citizen

An Inclusive Video

We normally think of just some aspects of inclusion to people with special needs. The truth stands firm requiring us to include people with diverse needs in every aspect of their lives!

                                  This video is inclusive to people with Hearing Impairment!

DEREVA ASIYE NA MIKONO NCHINI CHINA AZUIWA KUENDESHA GARI

Polisi nchini China wamemkamata mtu asiyekuwa na mikono akiendesha gari. Bwana huyo Wo Guo (45) si tu kwamba hakuwa na leseni bali alikuwa akitumia mguu wake wa kulia kubadili gia huku mguu wa kushoto ukikanyaga mafuta na breki.

Msemaji wa polisi amesema: "Ni jambo la ajabu, lakini ni hatari sana kwake kuendesha gari." Polisi huyo amesema itakuwa vyema kama ataajiri dereva wa kumuendesha. Gari la bwana Wo linashikiliwa na polisi ili kumzuia asiendelee kuendesha.

Bwana WO akiendesha gari

Bwana WO akihojiwa na askari polisi

Ukichunguza kwa makini juu ya jambo hili utagundua kuwa watu wenye ulemavu wana uwezo wa kufanya mambo mengi, wana vipaji vingi, wanaweza kuthubutu; lakini ulinzi na uangalizi kupita kiasi (overprotection) kutoka kwenye jamii zao unarudisha nyuma uthubutu wao.

Picha na taarifa kutoka Metro na CEN.

Msaada wa Matibabu kwa mtoto Maimuna Yahaya

Mtoto Maimuna Yahaya (11) anayesoma shule ya msingi ya watoto wenye mahitaji maalum (wenye ulemavu) ya Irente Rainbow (Lushoto- Tanga) darasa la pili, anasumbuliwa na tatizo la mifupa na ukubwa wa kichwa tangu kuzaliwa kwake, tatizo lililompelekea kuwa na ulemavu wa viungo na mtindio wa ubongo.

Mama wa mtoto huyo, bi. Tunu Juma amesema amekuwa akimpeleka mwanae huyo Maimuna katika hospitali ya KCMC kwa muda wa miaka 11. Hali ya mtoto inaendelea kuimarika, anaweza kukaa na  anaweza kuongea. Bi. Tunu amekuwa akimpeleka mwanae huyu shule na kumsubiri hadi wamalizapo masomo ya siku na kumrejesha nyumbani kwa muda wa miaka miwili.

Bi. Tunu anasema kwa sasa hali yake ya kiuchumi si nzuri, anashindwa kumpeleka mwanae kuhudhuria matibabu KCMC, hivyo anaomba msaada wa kifedha kwa wasamalia wema ili mtoto wake aendelee na matibabu.

 

Maimuna Yahaya

Mawasiliano:

Namba ya simu ya mama mzazi: +255712504768

Namba ya tigo pesa ya mtoto: +255655779345

Mahali wanapopatikana: Lushoto Mabwawani

Who Can Real Serve Up People With Disabilities In Tanzania?

Tanzania is a big country, behind each stage of life there are strong stumbling blocks for social-economic and political affairs for people with disabilities. Where shall these impaired people go? How can they escape the iron life within their country? For how long shall they suffer from these blocks?

In Tanzania, particularly in public service, if one finds the available service for people with disability, then one assumes that, there was either once a disabled person worked at that particular place, or the one who served that particular office had close and immediate tasted the disgusting conditions of disability from the immediate important relatives, children, parents and other family members.

John F. Kennedy, former US President.

John F. Kennedy, the former US president, became aware with disability affairs when his own blood sister was found having cognitive disability; and from his immediate taste of disability, Kennedy made sure that all rehabilitation centers for disabled people in the country were in good conditions.

Frankline D. Roosevelt, former US President 

Frankline Delano Roosevelt, also the former US president, who was himself, had tasted the side effects of disability by being rejected to some extend and got little trust from his fellow Americans for his first term presidential election only because he had disability; tried his all efforts to make sure all people in the US have equal access to all matters related to human affairs including those with disabilities. Nowadays one finds intensive services for disabled people in America, all these services are the reflections of custodian classes who were once affected by the unbearable psychological and physical pains resulted from disability.

In Tanzania context, it is not bad wish, but surely, things will be on their right position if and only if one of the custodian classes will taste the psychological and even the physical pains of disability. For instance, the dormant and function-less official documents for people with disabilities will become powerful, functional and active ones when one of the responsible custodians will be of the group of disabled people in Tanzania.

I therefore, hereby advice the president of next term in Tanzania to consider people with disabilities by appointing some people with disabilities to be in the cabinet.

Speech of the late Father of the nation, J. K. Nyerere on18 Februari, 1974 addressed issues of disability. It was presented in Kiswahili as follows:-

"…Wasiojiweza wa nchi hii wanachohitaji sana ni nafasi ya kushiriki kwa ukamilifu na kwa usawa katika mambo ya nchi yao. Kulemaa miguu au mikono maana yake siyo kwamba mtu yule sasa ni mtu nusu. Maana yake tu ni kwamba yako mambo fulani kilema huyu hawezi kuyafanya; na kwa hiyo ziko kazi fulani hawezi kuzifanya, na matumaini fulani, ambayo hawezi kuwa nayo. Lakini yako mambo mengi mengine ambayo angeweza kufanya kama sisi tulio na viungo vyetu kamili tungemsaidia ayafanye. Vivyo hivyo kwa mtu aliye kipofu, au aliye kiziwi. Watu hao si wapumbavu, wala si magogo, eti kwa sababu tu ya vilema vyao. Wanahitaji msaada wetu kuwawezesha kuvishinda vipingamizi walivyo navyo, na kuwawezesha kuyafanya kwa ukamilifu yale mengine wanayoweza kuyafanya.”