EDITORIAL: Disabled children have talent too, help them

A headteacher in Iringa has drawn our attention to a disturbing issue – how we treat children with special needs. Addressing Iringa University students during their recent tour of Mtwivila Primary School for deaf children, Mr Ally Mwakyesa noted that many parents dump children with disability in special schools and forget them.

This amounts to abandoning your own offspring. Mr Mwakyesa’s pupils are hard of hearing, which is not the most debilitating of disabilities. This raises questions about what the situation would be were the teachers to be required to handle mentally challenged children and those who have cerebral palsy.

As we salute the patience and golden hearts of special needs teachers, it is important to remind ourselves – and the parents of disabled children in particular – that these special men and women also need our support.

Parents who abandon their own children put into question the notion of parenting, which is increasingly coming under pressure as society gets more obsessed with material gain.

It is tough enough for today’s busy parents to effectively take care of their children, but the responsibility is heavier for those whose offspring have physical or mental challenges. Childcare is primarily the duty of parents. The househelp and institutions can only be back-up. Society must be constantly reminded that disability is not necessarily inability. Stephen Hawking, a 1942-born British scientist is wheelchair-bound and cannot speak, yet he is the greatest quantum physics researcher of our times.

Stevie Wonder, an American born blind in 1950, is one of the world’s greatest musicians today, just as Tanzania has its blind musician Anania Ngoliga – an accomplished guitarist, singer and composer.

Children with disability are not a lost cause. They deserve love and attention so they can unleash their potential for their own sake and that of society.