The story of boys who overcame disabilities

Left: Two siblings with cerebral palsy Ally and Abdallah with their father Mohammed Baweni at their home in Lushoto. Right: A woman helps her child on to a motorcycle (boda boda) PHOTO I SALOME GREGORY

What you need to know:

  • From the unfriendly infrastructure, stigma to unjustifieable myths are some of the things that hold back people with disabilities from failing to realise their dreams.

Living with any form of disabilities is in many cases considered as a condemnation to lifelong misery.

From the unfriendly infrastructure, stigma to unjustifieable myths are some of the things that hold back people with disabilities from failing to realise their dreams.

Though a recurring story which has been told very many times, to Abdallah Baweni, 25, and Theofan Remmy,23, residents of Lushoto District, the case has been different.

They both have Cerebral Palsy (CP), and against all odds they managed to go to school and are now employed and supporting their families.

This was all made possible through their tireless parents and teachers at Irente Rainbow School, which was established in 2005 by the Lutheran Church in Tanzania Diakonia Diocese.

The school is dedicated to teaching children and young adults with disabilities.

They do not only teach all subjects but also basic home skills.

Abdallah is the first pupil from Irente to be formally employed.

He was first appointed at Irente Biodiversity Reserve in April 2014, after six months he was confirmed as an employee.

His job is to take care of the environment by keeping the lawn well trimmed and tidy.

Abdallah’s father, Mohammed Baweni 72, says that, raising one child with any form of disability can never be compared to a parent raising even 10 children. Though he is attentive throughout our conversation the two boys can only respond to questions that with the mentioning their names.

The answers as expected are equally very brief and they do this looking at the interviewers direct in the face.

Abdallah does not earn much to speak home of, however, he feels contented to be of help to his family with the little money he is paid.

He calls upon other parents to support children with disabilities by giving them education and not hiding or locking up at home.

To get to where they are it took some commitment from their parents Mr Baweni who says, he had to work closely with teachers and health workers to make sure his two sons are treated just like other children.

“I have 11 children from three different wives. Abdallah and Ally were diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP) several years back. Raising children with disabilities requires more than extra efforts to make sure they are not a bad reference in the community,” says Baweni.

According to Baweni, his sons were born with no signs of disabilities. It all changed when Abdallah turned eight and Ally at Six years old. They were both at Kana Primary School in Tanga, this was before the family moved to Lushoto.

It all started with high fever and when taken to the hospital at Hindu Mandal he was told they have CP.

He was given different medications just to stabilise the high temperatures.

They responded positively to the treatment but the worst was yet to come as their situtaion would detoriarate further.

They didnt like school anymore, , lazy at eating and walking, crying most of the times.

Ally developed speech problem and with time he completely stopped talking despite the fact that he understood everything he was told.

“It was never easy coping with the changes we never expected and never had from the beginning. We left with no option but to accept the condition and building ourselves up together and take good care of our disabled children,” says Baweni.

When the family moved to Lushoto, the two children were taken to Kitopeni and Mbula primary schools but they could not cope with the environment.

“I was advised to take them to Rainbow school, by then it was a special school for children with disability,” adds Baweni.

As the years went by the burden grew bigger and he had to involve the school board to make sure the two children get support.

Commenting on his son’s employment he says, through the tireless effort he put and the supportive teachers, Abdallah managed to learn other life skills that has helped him become relevant to his community.

Theofan on the other hand becomes the second pupil from Irente to be employed at Sebastian Kolowa Memorial University (Sekomu), a private university in Lushoto.

It has three faculties: Education, Science, and Law. He has been employed at the University as a gardener since August last year.

According to his mother, Selina Msumari,47, Theofan also lives with CP.

He was 4 years old when his father abandoned the family after learning that he was a disabled child.

She thanks teachers at Rainbow school who taught his son and later made efforts to find a job for him.

She has never had a permanent job to support her family of two children.

She depends on odd jobs, most of them household chores such as washing clothes, tending farms and sometimes fetching water from the wells. “I am happy that my son has a job now. It was not easy to keep him at Rainbow School for more than 10 years. Apart from him learning life skills Theofan came out of Rainbow School a complete child with plenty of knowledge,” says Selina.

Theofan can now manage his finances, he knows so many places and he is not afraid of meeting people. From his salary he pays Sh40,000 as rent for the house where they live, he save Sh40,000, and Sh20,000 spent on his personal needs. Theofan’s love for modern gadgets such as mobile phones is quite evident and he is happy he has been able to buy one that helps him to communicate mostly with his mother. According to his mother he sometimes forgets to come back home until his mother calls him.

Lucy Mwinuka is the coordinator of outreach programme at Rainbow school. The school is run in collaboration with the church and the government of the United Republic of Tanzania.

She says, through daily activities she realised Theofan can manage employment.

She says, it is never easy to convince most employers that people with disabilities are able to perform certain tasks, many see them as a liability.

The outreach programme a disability community rehabilitation programme aims at supporting and educate disabled children, youth, families and care givers.

“The outreach strives to build wider understanding of disabilities, changing attitudes and providing awareness to communities and empowerment to the people with disabilities,” she says.

Commenting about the two boys, Yassin Sheghalilo the Rainbow Head Teacher says, Abdallah and Theofan has made the school proud and they are referred as good examples.

He says, since pupils with special needs do not go through national examinations instead they are only taught life skills through different four stages. During the stages pupils are taught how to take care of themselves, helping parents and others out of school, managing finances and how to look for opportunities to employ themselves.

At Rainbow there are several projects to enrich pupils with disabilities with a wider knowledge on developing skills. The projects include carpentry, batiki making, candles and beads making, poultry, cattle keeping and tailoring.

The school has seven teachers with a deficit of two teachers and 43 pupils.