In Zambia, children with disabilities are often hidden at home”

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 2012 (IPS) - Oscar Pistorius has double below-knee amputations. And he entered the men’s 400 meters race in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, competing for South Africa.

It was a milestone for persons with disabilities all over the planet. But few of them are as lucky as Pistorius, who has had access to advanced education and health care from early childhood.

The fifth session of the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities is taking place in New York at the moment, and the focus of the event is the situation for women and children with disabilities. As mentioned during the opening of the Conference, persons with disabilities are still facing discrimination all over the globe, particularly in the developing countries. And women and children with disabilities are tackling the biggest difficulties.

Social oppression, and lack of access to social services, schooling and work, which leads to poverty, were being brought up as the most urgent problems.

IPS had the opportunity to exchange a few words on the topic with Paul Mumba, a teacher in the Mpika District in Zambia. He teaches children and young adults with both mental and physical disabilities, ranging from 7 to 20 years old, and mainly from low income families. They attend his classes together with children without disabilities.

“I am just a regular teacher,” Mumba says. “You do not need to be a special teacher to do what I do.”

Q: Can you describe the current situation for children with disabilities in Zambia?

A: They are not easily identified. They are often hidden at home by their parents. As a teacher I have to think of ways to find them. There is a bad tradition, almost everybody says that children with disabilities should be hidden away from the rest of the community.

Q. Why did you decide to become a teacher?

A: I have a passion for it. I just want to make a change. Then, when I went into the teaching profession, I didn’t know what to do first, when I saw that some children were not progressing.

Q: So you developed a method called child-to-child, to include children with disabilities in elementary education. Can you explain your method further?

A: First of all it is about identifying what is relevant to teach the children. A child will only remember what seems relevant. And I don’t believe in special classes for children with disabilities.

But when I started teaching children with mental disabilities together with children with no disabilities, do you know what they called me? They called me “teacher of the fools”. Many people do not have any knowledge about these matters.

Q: Does your students face other sorts of discrimination, apart from negative stereotyping and difficulties to access education?

A: Well, if they get to go to school, they still have problems to get jobs later. They are often being segregated. But I believe that they would have the capacity to do everything if they had the chance.

Q: Do you believe that new technology can help children, and also adults, with disabilities to take greater part in society?

A: Technology could be of some help but the most important is the social aspect. To get rid of the stigmatisation. There is a lot more to be done.