Nyanza Disability Conference

Nyanza - typical view from a bus.

I went to Nyanza today, down near Butare in the South, for the annual National Disability Day. I wasn’t going to go, as my organisation went down on Sunday, but there was a VSO contingent, including my Programme Manager, who were travelling down today. They had a spare seat so I hopped in. We left at 7:30. It takes an hour or two to get down there – beautiful part of the country. As with the rest of Rwanda: startlingly green with big rolling hills. Lots of people working the land. We passed a tree planting ceremony halfway, which we later found out was part of the end of a reconciliation celebration – Tutsis planting trees on Hutu land and vice versa. Nice idea.

Anyway, the day itself was pretty entertaining – loads of craft stalls from different organisations. Most people here have a skill or trade. The Blind Institute were selling cards and leather sandals, there were bags, clothes, pictures, beads etc. Really nice. Our lot were doing well selling T-shirts with the Sign Language alphabet and our logo on. I bought one. We were also selling photocopies of the alphabet for about 5p a throw. There was also the Deaf Women’s Organisation over in the other corner – the two groups aren’t getting on so well at the moment. Lot of politics going on, very complicated.

There were a lot of Deaf people there, actually. It’s a population of nine million here, and around 0.8% are thought to be d/Deaf – around 72,000. In Britain we’ve got a population of around 60,000,000 and a mid-estimate is 95,000 d/Deaf (RNID: 50-70,000 CACDP: 95,000 BDA: 100,000+) so maybe 0.2%? (my mathematics isn’t great, feel free to correct). Childhood meningitis and lack of access to health care being the two main culprits.

It was a really busy day. They closed everything down in the town so that everyone could attend. Had lots of singing, clapping and dancing. The main problem, as usual, was food. Not a single food seller there. Then, later in the afternoon, all of the participants/stall holders were fed. We were given a bottle of pop and take-away tins with a samosa, a meatball, a bread bun and a piece of sponge cake in. 

Problem being that we had to eat this in the main hall, with all the children and non-organisational adults staring on with nothing. Martine gave almost all of her food away, despite the fact she was really hungry. An old woman came to ask me for a drink of soda. We had two spare bottles on the table. I went to give her one, but one of the stall holders told me not to. All the volunteers found this part of the day particularly difficult. The adults were just as hungry, but they concealed it better than the children, who gathered around. They weren’t allowed to ask us for food, but some people gave it anyway. If they were caught begging, the security police would chase them and threaten them with sticks, even little kids. It was a very strange arrangement. There was no food or drink available for the general public, but why we had to eat in front of them I have no idea.

The venue itself had a minor problem. The room was on a slope and thus tiered with concrete steps every few meters. Not brilliant for a disability conference. People had real trouble lugging the wheelchairs around the craft stalls. At least one blind person went flying. Additionally, the guards were not particularly savvy. During the speech outside, one guard stood directly between the Deaf people and the interpreter. The interpreter who, due to politics, was only interpreting for the women and turned her back on the other Deaf contingent!! Then, later, they cleared the hall by wandering around making announcements with a microphone. My lot had no idea what was going on and they made no attempt to let them know. They've got a way to go yet in the awareness stakes.

Despite that, it was a good day. Huge turnout, lovely craft market.

We swung back via Handicap International in Kigali, who were holding a discussion on the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. It was a two-hour event of which I understood zilch as it was held in French and Kinyarwanda only. However, at the end, someone did take pity and printed me off a copy of the Convention in English. I was only along for the ride as I was in the VSO van, so no biggy. Managed to try and look attentive through most of it ;)

It was a long day and I was pretty knackered when I got back, but enjoyed the trip out into the countryside.