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Abel Ndooka
COMMUNITIES have been urged to embrace children with disabilities as stigma can have long-term effects on their self-esteem and confidence.
Speaking at the Ezekiel Guti Junior Legacy School corporate fundraising day, ZAOGA Forward in Faith International Ministries’ Archbishop Dr Eunor Guti said communities must embrace children and people with disabilities.
She urged their parents and guadians to send them to school so that they can be taught life-changing skills that will help them in future.
Because of stigma, Dr Guti said, some parents are afraid to expose their children to various opportunities.
“It is very sad that children with disabilities face a lot of stigma from different communities and this leads to their parents locking them in their homes as they will be trying to hide them,” she said.
“This is very bad indeed because when they leave their children at home with housemaids or garden boys, at times they are abused and those children cannot defend themselves.
“This issue makes me very emotional indeed, seeing how many children with disabilities are facing a lot of abuse, yet nothing is being done.
“So today I am urging everyone, let’s embrace children with disabilities and let’s send them to school so that they get an education and they are taught life-changing skills that will help them in the future.”
Dr Guti shared a story of how her late son Ezekiel Guti Junior would face stigma because of his disabilities.
She explained how her late husband, Archbishop Ezekiel Guti, would cheer him up and tell him that he was not different from other human beings.
“When our son was born, when people saw us, they would come and greet us with a smile but they would change their mood when they saw him. But we always told him that he should not let that affect him,” she said.
“We sent him to school to get an education, and he went overseas to further his education as well, and he came back home to enrol to study to be a pastor, and he finished all his studies.
“He accomplished a lot in his life and went on to marry and have a beautiful family. I am sharing this story to inspire others that disabilities are not an inability; your child with disabilities and special needs can achieve anything in their lives. Do not hide them, expose them to the world so they can learn.”
Dr Guti revealed that the Ezekiel Guti Legacy School was founded because her late son encouraged her and her late husband to start a school dedicated for children with disabilities.
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Online Reporter