The Executive Director of Rwanda Union of the Blind, Dr Donatille Kanimba said that people with deaf-blindness need to be trained on basic life skills to help them explore their surroundings.
The issue was raised during a press conference held in Kigali on December 10, 2020, focusing on the need to recognize the deaf-blindness as a distinct disability type in Rwanda.
Dr Kanimba said that people with deaf-blindness are believed unable even in simple issues, however, they have the potential to perform some household tasks if guided and informed earlier.
'The deaf-blind must be taught life skills like feeding themselves, cooking, cleaning and washing. They are able to do such tasks but most people think that they can't', she says.
She went on saying: 'Because of deaf-blindness, they often do not know what is going on around them. I have a visual impairment but I have any problem with hearing. I know that before the food gets ready on the plate it is cooked. Even if I don't go to the kitchen to cook I hear like they are going to cook. A deaf-blind may spend a long time unaware of what happens before the food reaches him or her at the table, if he or she was not informed at an early age.'
In order to address hindrances to the development of people with such a disability, in the spirit of not leaving no one behind, Dr Kanimba said it is of great importance if deaf-blindness is recognized as a disability type in Rwanda.
According to her, it is possible for one to live a very bad life as a result of a misunderstanding of a combination of hearing and blindness impairment.
'Deaf-blindness is a combined disability. Some people confuse it with only visual impairment, others think it is only hearing impairment, while some others take it as a mental disability that makes them think that such a person does not know anything. We even found an eight-year-old child drinking only milk because his parents thought he could take nothing else, yet we talked to them to help him try something else and he could even eat after a short time', she revealed.
Furaha Jean Marie, the Chairperson of ROPDB (Rwanda Organization of Persons with Deaf-Blindness), said: 'We still have the challenge of communication in families as many people don't know tactile sign language that we use. Access to medical services is still difficult for deaf-blind people because of their inability to explain their problem to health care providers who also most of the time do not know sign language. So, we encourage everyone to learn tactile sign language.'
He calls upon parents not to exclude children with disability, especially deaf-blindness because some have been found hiding them in the houses due to embarrassment of their condition or as a means to protect from other harm.
So far, ROPDB registered 167 people with deaf-blindness countrywide but there are some who are not identified yet. Among the identified, 60% are children.
Marie Chantal Ntawiha, the ROPDB's project manager, urges various agencies and parents in general to fight the new disability to happen again.
'Parents should go for pregnancy tests, respect all vaccinations for children on time and avoid taking drugs during pregnancy. We urge parents to take care of this and medical staff must ensure that the child is not born with a disability to be corrected or to be monitored early.'
Deaf-blindness is varying degrees or progressive loss of sight and hearing, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
By Kanamugire Emmanuel
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