During the last seven months of my Peace Corps service, I am featuring photographs and stories of several persons with disabilities living in Cameroon. All the photos are part of a series called “Persons with Disabilities of Cameroon.” The goal of presenting photographs and their stories is to create better awareness about the plights that persons with disabilities face in a developing country. When I return to the US, I hope to exhibit this series in a gallery and publish a book to educate others about persons with disabilities living in developing countries as this topic is so rarely discussed in the media.

Damian, a young adult who was born in 1992 with double club feet, tells a story of perseverance and living positively.

“I was born in the health center.  My parents were surprised because they have never seen this case in the family.  And then they never gave up on me.  The nurse was trying to fix the legs while she was not an expert.  She tied the legs with bandage.  The whole time I was crying because I was in pain because of the bandage she tied.  When I got up the next day, they had to untie it because I was crying a lot.  So when they untied it, they saw my legs were like bent.  So they had to take me to another hospital called Kumbo Shisong Hospital.  So the doctors could not do anything because of the scars.  So there was nothing they could do.  They just sent me back home.  My father was advised to sue the nurse who bandaged me in court.  My father said it was a weak of God that allowed me to grow up like that.  They never knew I would walk.  So, one day, my mom was heading to the farm when I was one year and five months.  She surprising saw me trying to walk.  So, in the old day, she stayed at home trying to make me walk because she thought I would never work because I would be crippling.  She was so happy.  So at five years, I started primary school.  It was not easy because I could not buy shoes from the market because they were not designed to fit my feat.  They were expensive to make and my mother could not afford it.”

He went to school with no shoes.

“I completed class 7 and my parents fully supported me.  They never gave up.  After class 7, I continued to secondary school with the shoe problem.”

He still had no shoes.

“My mother carried me to school.  In form 2, I tried some shoes I could wear.  I finally found shoes I could wear from the market and finally started wearing shoes.  Thought at first it was painful to put shoes on until I discovered the soft shoes and I’m fine with that.  During my secondary school, I’ve gone to so many hospitals but they could not correct the feet because of the scars that the bandage gave.  So I learned to live like that.  But one greatest challenge I have is that I don’t have the ability to stand on my own.  I must support myself when I stand.  It was not easy for me to walk around because children mock me.  So I was always at home until my mom gave me the courage to forget about what the children were saying.  So I go to the field and play football and I learned to live like that.  So now I am happy to have a position to live like other children regardless of disability.  When I finished secondary school, there was no money to continue.  I had to work for two years to raise money to pay for my university.  So now I’m in university studying accounting.  I worked in documentation.  I have passion for computer.”