PHOTO: Madam Deddeh Robin
By Joseph Kerkulah,kerkulahjoe.rkfm@gmail.com
GANTA, Liberia- Mustering the courage and determination to make life easier is easier said than done for persons living with disabilities, but many in Liberia are proving that it is possible.
Besides battling discrimination, they have to brave the difficulties to cater for themselves and their families, in addition to moving around.
One of such courageous persons with disabilities (PwD) is Madam Deddeh Robin in Nimba County’s commercial city of Ganta, which is situated over 261 kilometers northeast of Monrovia. Though visually impaired, she has encouraged herself and worked hard not only to improve her life but is touching the lives of others.
Madam Deddeh Robin displaying her skill of using the brail (Image used with permission)
Not an easy thing. Realizing the importance of education, she joined in founding the School of the Blind in this area, developing the courage impact lives regardless of her disability.
How she became visually impaired
Madam Deddeh Robin explained to this Reporter recently that her life’s challenge began at age 12, when she was a 3rd grader at St. Martin Catholic School and a chorister of the Holy Spirit Cathedral along with Peter Jessy Cole and many others in Gbarnga, Bong County after she was hit by Measles disease.
Measles is a contagious disease that often attack childhood and it is caused by a virus of mobillivirus. It features a spreading red skin, rash, fever runny nose, caught and red eyes, according to medical science.
Robin was attacked by this virus for a week and she was treated with some herbs, although it did not help with her recovery process.
Later, she explained, she started to experience eye problem, as her eyes could hardly open, with the situation declining by the day, making it difficult to see and she began experiencing severe pain in her head. She was thereafter rushed to the Phebe Hospital in Suakoko, Bong County. And while undergoing treatment, there was a bit of improvement taking place, as she was gradually responding to treatment by Eye Specialist at the hospital.
The Doctor then called for operation and the operation but then Liberia’s devastating civil war came, making it difficult for her to continue good medical treatment.
The Effect of the War
Her condition got worse during the August attack of Gbarnga in 1994.
The war forced Deddeh Robin and her family to flee into Ivory Coast for refuge, as they search for treatment for her worsening eye condition.
In Danane, Ivory Coast, an Eyes Doctor advised that advanced operation was required but that it could only be done in Europe or America, but her family had no means to do so. At the same time, she was still going to school until she dropped in the 10th grade due to the declining eye illness.
Repatriation to Liberia
In 1999-2000, the UNHCR started her repatriation process in Ivory Coast, when time many Liberians decided to return to Liberia because the war had subsided. She and her family were repatriated to Gbarnga, Bong County.
At that time her condition had made no improvement, as she could no longer see to continue her high school studies.
She said she was taken to Monrovia to three different major hospitals in search of medication for her eye but to no avail.
According to her, each of these doctors could visit her with one disabled person whose condition was worse than hers. She then decided to muster the courage to live with the visual disability thereafter.
Empowering herself through vocational skills
Madam Deddeh Robin has not allowed herself to become a liability to her family.
She some time ago decided learn some vocational skills but did not know which institution to attend or where to start.
Fortunately for her, Mr. Beyen Kota, the President of the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB) decided to establish a school and she was asked to mobilize people with disabilities for one week training- a training which ended with each of the beneficiaries receiving US$25.
She used her share of the money to operate a petty business as means of catering to the family.
Deddeh remembers two Liberian Journalists who led her through the struggle, Olive Tarkerwiah and Clarence Jackson of radio Gbarnga at the time. They were the media personnel who contacted her for the recruitment of PwDs in Gbarnga to lean some vocational skills, she said. It was then when Mr. Kota had established the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB) in 2007-2008.
She admited that it is easy growing up with disability in Liberia is coupled with lots of challenges, including discouragement, mockery, molestation which many times become the order of the day.
So that’s why she took advantage of the vocational education provided by Beyen Kota and CAB. With confidence she declared: “I took advantage of the vocational school” and learned Soap Making and Tie and Dye.
Contribution to the Societal Change
After acquiring training from the Christian Association of the Blind, she and her husband led an assessment team to Ganta as part of the decentralization process of the disabled education in Liberia, she informed this Reporter.
Her knowledge plus her husband’s (who is physically challenged), Kougbay Zawolo Kulah contributed to the establishment and development of the Ganta School of the Blind.
Today, she said, they are proud of contributing to improving lives of many PwDs and leading them to becoming change makers in the society.
The Ganta School of the Blind (GSB), which was established in 2009, focuses on educating and building the positive hope of persons with disabilities through the development of their skills and building an improved disabilities society.
This School has trained and graduated many persons living with disabilities in Nimba and Liberia. Students here are trained in the use of brail as a special area of learning. Brail is an instrument use by persons with disability- visually impaired people to write. The brail training comes for those who got older, but felt in the hands of visual impairment.
About 16 persons have graduated from the brail category; many of them are teaching high schools in Ganta.
Madam Robin named the following persons as beneficiaries of her long-time dream:
- Boto Boto, an educated man who got visually impaired at an older age but enrolled at the GSB to acquire knowledge on using the brail and graduated. He took an enrollment at the LICOSSE mobile college and obtained AA degree in Education. He presently serving as a class room teacher of the Hope Academy High School, an institution operated by the Hope for the Nations.
- The principal of the Ganta School of the Blind Mr. Baron Dolo, who is also one of the beneficiaries of the institution holds an AA degree in Education from the LICOSSE mobile college in Ganta and Timothy Johnson who entered the school at a younger age graduated, took advantage of academic classes with physical persons, he became the dux of his class. He has been undergoing Journalism Training at Radio Kergheamahn in Ganta for the past 10 months. He also learning Computer at the AIFO sponsored school in Monrovia.
Aside from the school work, Deddeh is involved with running a mini business. She carries her goods on her head in carrier as she moves around Ganta City and various communities.
According to her, she uses a strategy of effectively running her business by sometimes giving up items to her customers weekly on credit. And later, she follows up for payment settlement. This type of business in Liberia is commonly called “Sell-Pay.” Some of the goods she sells include slippers, women handbags, and earrings, chains, and women blouses, among other items.
But sometimes she gets duped by able-bodied people. She explained that some people who have no physical challenges take her goods and do not want to make payment, something she said is causing difficulties for her little business.
Challenges in running GSB
Operations of the Ganta School of the Blind is certainly not free of problems.
Madam Deddeh Robin explained that despite the strides the institution has so far made in impacting the lives of many persons living with disabilities, the institution lacks financial support and better facility to accommodate the school going kids and those parents who attend.
She spoke of the need to improve the learning environment and build a modern structure. The Hope for the Nations had donated two parcel of land to the GSB, she disclosed.
However, since the donation 6 years ago, no structure has yet been erected on the land. She indicated that 4 years ago, the School was put out of a building for not paying rent. The hope of the GSB was restored by the Ganta City Mayor, Amos N.G. Suah who donating a building to the school to operate for the time being.
Support to the School and people with disabilities is needed, Madam Dedded Robin says from humanitarian organizations and individuals to help build a modern school building to accommodate the growing number of PwD kids and others who want to make something out of their lives.
According to her, with such an effort, it will enable the institution to impact many more lives of children with disabilities, who are desirous of pursuing quality education. This Report was made possible with support from Internews Liberia Inclusive Media Project.