adminMost are worried if they do not have the latest gadgets, knowing the lyrics to the latest songs and names of the hottest international artistes.
At this age, most worry if they do not have pin-up posters of international artistes and cover girls on their walls and, of course, the various social networks.
For many, this is the age to start preparing for Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations and lay the foundation of the future.
But this stage of life only remains a dream for most disabled children in Zimbabwe.
For most who have never attended school, this stage is confirmation that they will never have the opportunity to go and learn to read and write.
Most have never had an opportunity to attend school; they miss out on health care and do not have adequate resources to cater for their disability.
Society usually views them as lesser beings who cannot do anything and are usually put in “solitary confinement” as their parents feel embarrassed by their disability.
Whatever most of these children do, society turns a blind eye.
Ngobile Matchazi of Pelandaba in Bulawayo suffers from a rare condition – osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease – which causes a defect in the production of a protein called collagen.
Callogen is an important protein that helps support the body — the scaffold on which the body is built.
Osteogenesis imperfecta is caused by genetic mutation in the gene that directs the body to produce callogen.
As such the bones easily fracture if a person with the condition carries anything heavy.
Ngobile’s unemployed father Jack, uncle Luke and younger brother Andile also have the same condition.
The Bulawayo City Council disconnected water supplies at their house over unpaid bills.
Since all the men in the family are dis-abled, his mother has the burden of looking for clean water for the family.
The family rarely has enough to eat.
Because of poverty, Nqobile did not complete his O-Levels but is a gifted phone technician, sportsman and handyman. His father said he had never benefited from the Basic Education Assistance Module, as it is abused by teachers who put their relatives ahead of needy people.
Nqobile recently travelled to South Africa for the Paralympic Games and won a gold medal in wheelchair basketball. But still society looks down upon that achievement.
“I did not finish school but taught myself how to repair malfunctioning phones. In the beginning, people looked down on me because of my disabilities. They would take their phones for repairs elsewhere but they would not be fixed. The same people would bring the phones to me as a last resort and I would fix them. I taught myself everything I know.
“My challenge is people look down on me. Even when I won the bronze medal, some without congratulating me said it was expected as I was playing with other disabled people. They think that I cannot do anything because I am disabled,” he said.
Ngobile hopes to benefit from Government’s indigenisation programme, so that he can start a small phone repairs business.
Such are the challenges faced by children with disabilities in Zimbabwe.
As the United Nations Children’s Fund put it during the launch of the State of the World’s Children 2013 report, children with disabilities and their communities would both benefit if society focused on what they can achieve, rather than what they cannot do.
Unicef Chief of Child Protection Lauren Rumble says 29 percent of disabled children in Zimbabwe never attend school.
She said in comparison, only 10 percent of their able-bodied counterparts never attend school – a three-fold difference.
In Zimbabwe, she said, children in rural areas are two times more likely not to have birth certificates and access to clean drinking water.
She added that girls and women with dis- abilities are “doubly disabled” and are vulnerable to sexual abuse.
“Globally, children with mental/intellectual disabilities are four to six times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse, especially girls.”
Translating this to Zimbabwe, more are unlikely to have access to sexual and reproductive health services, despite increased risk of exposure to STIs/HIV, Rumble revealed.
She bemoaned that children with disabilities are often hidden behind closed doors, left off birth registers or shut away in institutions and forgotten.
“We contribute to their exclusion by failing to gather enough data to inform our decisions.
“Unicef Zimbabwe is working with national partners to conduct a specialised survey on disability building on MoHCW work from CRU,” she added.
Despite Zimbabwe having policies and legislation in place guaranteeing universal primary education for disabled children, this is not happening.
Firstly, the schools to cater for such severe conditions are few and where available sometimes extremely expensive, hence shutting the door on disabled children.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises the human rights of all children, including those with disabilities under Article 23 which states: “State parties recognise that a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community.”
Article 13 of the ACRWC also states: “Every child who is mentally or physically disabled shall have the right to special measures of protection in keeping with his physical and moral needs and under conditions which ensure his dignity, promote his self-reliance and active participation in the community.”
Last month, Zimbabwe ratified this Convention which mirrors commitments in the new Constitution to people with disabilities.
Rumble said Unicef has been assisting the Zimbabwean Government by equipping schools with learning materials (MoESAC), providing community grants for assistive devices (MoLSS), data collection (MoHCW) and through the harmonised Social Cash Transfer Programme for the poorest families (MoLSS).
She noted that to accelerate progress, there is need for Zimbabwe to keep her constitutional promise, have better data analysis, avail more funding for important initiatives in schools, hospitals and clinics, and scale up of social protection to help children stay with their families,
According to the Special Advisor to the President on Disability and the Disadvantaged Retired Brigadier-General Felix Muchemwa, there is need to urgently compile data of people living with disabilities.
He expressed shock at the country’s failure to quantify data of people living with disabilities.
“I was shocked that we have not quantified the data as yet and it’s so painful because we cannot help people when we do not know their numbers…
“Since my appointment in 2009, I have toured the country to assess the situation on the ground and was disheartened to find out that there were no Government schools for children living with disabilities,” he added.
Even though he has been taking down data across the country, it has not been easy to ascertain the numbers as some parents hide their children, he complained.
He bemoaned that most children living with disabilities do not have birth certificates, no access to health facilities, and often do not have clean water.
National Association of Societies of the Care of the Handicapped director Mr Farai Mukuta said most disabled children were not benefiting from Beam.
He said the administration of the fund has been non-existent and reduced into a creature idly sitting between the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture and that of Labour and Social Welfare.
“It is sad. Because of this children fail to access basic human rights services such as education and health as they have been reduced to beggars.
“More than 52 percent of children living with disabilities are not registered so that means they have no birth certificates to show that they exist. So how can the Government assist people that they don’t know exist,” he said.
According to the “State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities”, kids with disabilities are the least likely to receive health care or go to school.
They are among the most vulnerable to violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect, particularly if they are hidden or put in institutions – as many are because of social stigma or the economic cost of raising them.
“The combined result is that children with disabilities are among the most marginalised people in the world. Children living in poverty are the least likely to attend their local school or clinic but those who live in poverty and also have a disability are even less likely to do so,” says the report.
It further states: “Discrimination on the grounds of disability is a form of oppression. Multiple deprivations lead to even greater exclusion for many children with disabilities.”
The report further points out that there is little accurate data on the number of children with disabilities, what disabilities these children have and how they affect their lives.
“As a result, few governments have a dependable guide for allocating resources to support and assist children with disabilities and their families.”
Sadly, the report points out, about one third of the world’s countries have so far failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The report then emphasises on the need for governments to keep their promises to guarantee the equal rights of all their citizens -including their most excluded and vulnerable children.
Indeed, children with disabilities are equal beings who should not be looked down by society. Then their lives can better.
Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake aptly put it when he said: “When you see the disability before the child, it is not only wrong for the child, but it deprives society of all the child has to offer. Their loss is society’s loss; their gain is society’s gain.”
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