Persons with Disabilities of Cameroon: Tabitha

August 16th, 2016 by | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

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.

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I met Tabitha during my first month in Bamenda.  She crawled into the office, which shocked me.  I asked her why she didn’t have a wheelchair.  She explained to me that she did have a wheelchair but couldn’t use it for various reasons.  I met her again several times throughout my two years in Peace Corps.  I’ll allow her to speak from her own voice about her life and why she does not always use a wheelchair.

“I walked up to five years. So I just had fever. And from there I became so weak and paralyzed. I had general poliomyelitis. Then after that I started going like a newborn baby. It’s like because i was so weak and then from there I could not walk up again. As I could not walk up again, my parents took me to so many hospitals and doctors and traditional doctors. When they took me to all doctors and naive doctors, there was no help. I had to use calipers.  Then I used tricycle for outing and wheelchair for when I am in the house.”

“At first, I had many challenges while I was at school.  People were advising my mother not to carry me to school because I was a disabled child.  My brother and sister pushed me on tricycle.  Roads are not accessible.  When I was about to go to secondary school our principal never wanted to meet me or take me to school because he said I was disabled. While in school, I was the only disabled child in school. It was actually a big challenge because since I was the only one there was nobody like me again in school. Students always looked at me differently. They thought it was strange to see a disabled person in school.  The doors to the classrooms were not accessible. I could not reach the blackboard because I could not stand.”

“I dropped out of secondary school, in form three. I went to technical school. I got pregnant. No one stopped me from going to school but I decided myself. I thought I no longer needed school because I became a mother. I am a mother of one child.”

“I don’t have job opportunities. For that reason, I find difficulties for providing my basic needs. Like today I need money for house raise and money to service my wheelchair and tricycle. I also find difficulties moving around because roads are still very inaccessible. When I want to take a taxi, the drivers do not have the patience to wait and maybe put my wheelchair and tricycle on the car. When I am traveling, they ask me to pay for my wheelchair or tricycle to put in the car. There are times when I am going too far, I need personal assistance which would make things too costly for me. The personal assistance would help me with the wheelchair. I have to pay for his transportation, lodging and feeding.”

“I walk on my knees when I am in places where my wheelchair cannot move. It happens often because most places are not accessible. Most of the time I walk on my knees. I am not the only one facing the problems. There are so many other persons with disabilities facing the same problems like me. And there are so many more who are facing problems that are worse than mine.”

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