My names are Vicky Kimaro, I am a teacher residing in
Sekei Arusha.
I was born in Hai district Kilimanjaro region. I did not have any
disabilities until when I was four my lap nerves were damaged by an injection
which was incorrectly injected by an internship doctor.
Thanks to my family who knew that there was something
like rehabilitation for the disabled people, my brother took me to KCMC
hospital when I was 13,where I was twice operated which kept me surviving for
two good years before I started having some pains again on my left lap which
forced me to walk with the artificial legs.
I have to admit that I count myself lucky to complete
my primary education after staying the whole year at home without schooling.
As a normal child I had a dream when I was a kid
wished to be a doctor but I could not be one because of my disabilities, I
finally opted for being a teacher. I taught for some time and I had some
difficulties caused by the pains in my bones, which gave me some more appealing
thoughts. I took it as a challenge and decided to opt for accountancy and
treasury courses and I did stage one and two, VETA in typing of which I
succeeded very well.
After some time I got a chance to pursue a diploma
course in secretary sponsored by Australian sponsors at the Salvation Army in
Mbeya. When I finished I worked as secretary and a teacher also.
My wages were low and I could not bear begging from
people for various helps and I had to scratch my head again to find something I
could do apart from teaching and being a secretary, I later came up with an
idea of tailoring and I started being a tailor by practicing it after work. I
can’t lie but it raised my standards and with that I was able to buy my new
appliance.
As I knew that being educated was the only way to help
me out, I was obsessed with the computer knowledge and I gave it a shot too of which
I am a successful diploma holder which makes me a technician sometime helping
people with the computer problems.
I am very proud of who I am today because my biggest
dream ever is fulfilled have always been dreaming of being independent in my
life and thanks to God I am. I can absolutely depend on myself and also thank
God that I can help others with all I can.
The saying goes that family always come first, God has
given me a wonderful family I thank Him for that. It has been very supportive
to me when I was sad and when I have been happy too, they are always there, and
God bless them.
With all I have seen to here, I can recommend two to
three things in our society;
first and foremost is that the society should change
the way it treats us, it makes us not comfy in our own surroundings because we cannot
even be involved in the decisions making in our society, for sure this has to
change so that we can feel alive again.
Secondly, it goes directly to the government, I thank
it for recognizing us to the extent of signing the UN treaty in 2009, what I am
sort of demanding or requesting is to put it into actions the agreements of the
treaty, taking heed of education for example; PWDs love to study but the
government is not giving up enough for us.
The government does not give us enough chances since
primary level, most of the time what it gives is the free chances to some of
the university levels which is not the base. So it’s hard for PWDs like us to
go for them because we do not have the base. Furthermore our government does
not give us free health services, can you imagine a PWD making a queue with
other normal people in a hospital without considering his or her disabilities,
we really ask the government to help us put all in action.
Thirdly, it goes to the non-governmental organisations
like ICD, all we are asking for them is to help us find sponsors who can help
us with various stuffs. Am sure if we will be given enough help we can really stand
on our own. Some of us have plans to have our own workshops but what we are all
facing is the capital to move forward. So all what I am saying is they help us
in this so that we can help other PWDs too.
I would like to thank you for coming, it gives us
confidence seeing that normal people are interested with our problems, it
really means a lot to me and us in general.
1 comments:
Inspirational
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