Senzeni

Senzeni, from Zimbabwe, was involved in an accident in 2003 that left her with a spinal injury. She used the challenges she faced to empower herself and improve the lives of other people with disabilities.

“I’m the founder of Disability Network Goromonzi in Zimbabwe. It was introduced in 2019 – we realised that a lot of attention was given to people with disabilities in urban areas, but nothing at all was being done in rural areas. We still had a lot of challenges, like people being locked inside and disabilities being perceived as witchcraft; and stigma and discrimination were very rife in rural areas. We also realised that people in rural areas didn’t know their rights as far as disability is concerned.

“I was involved in a car accident in 2003. I had a spinal cord injury, which led to my being paraplegic. I was staying in an urban area before the injury, but after it, because of the challenges, I had to go to stay with my mum, who lives in a rural area. So that’s when I realised the challenges that were there.

“The changes after my accident were so overwhelming: discrimination, stigma, loneliness, even the loss of my job. But then I liked the whole situation because it was a learning experience. I used it in a way to empower myself.

“I started my own business because I couldn’t secure my job back. I started sewing, and I opened a clothing shop. So that’s how I’m living right now; I’m a business lady.

“It really shows how life can change from being someone who cannot do anything for themselves and who the society is looking down upon, to someone who is bringing change and living the experience. And that’s a message in itself, because people know me for the past 20 years and they’ve seen the change that it has brought. For me to say to people: ‘let’s come together as people with disabilities, we can do it’ – they know that we can do it because I have done it.

“After the rehabilitation and the connection I had with disability organisations from urban areas, I realised the gap. And I thought maybe if we could start this thing, it could close the gap that was there. I think we are doing quite well so far.

“I was on the National Disability Board for the past five years. That experience connected me to many disability organisations, including Sightsavers. It left me with a lot of networks and I’ve managed to make the most of it.

“In 20 years I’ve seen a lot of change. Sometimes it feels like a book, a novel, a story for me; because there was a time that I spent about two years without going outside my own home. I now live alone, but I’m still in that same community where my mother lives. And my mother actually quit her job to take care of me – that was the arrangement when I left hospital. But now my mother is old, and I am looking after her.

Challenging stigma and changing attitudes

“In my community at first I used to think that I was the only one because I was the only person with a disability going out. And I faced a lot of challenges, like people staring. It’s something for them to see a disabled person going out alone, going to the shops or to church.

“When I started this organisation, there were a lot of caregivers and family members coming to me, saying, ‘We have our own mother who is in our house. We don’t know what to do with her. She is disabled,’ or ‘We have a disabled son that is in our house, we don’t know what to do’ or ‘There is a baby next door; they are locking the baby in the house – can you come and talk to them? Can you counsel them? What can we do?’

“Other people with disabilities also come to me: ‘I have this thing. What can I do? I want to go out, I want to do something for myself.’ All this was before I even thought of starting an organisation. So this is what gave birth to the organisation. It was an idea, but I saw that I was already doing the work. I just wanted to make it official and put it in a way that could work in the community.

“I’ve had great help from the local leaders and traditional leaders. The business associations have been very supportive too. We have managed to begin to remove the stigma and discrimination that is associated with disability.

“A disability rights campaign like Equal Zimbabwe is something that has been attempted for a long time, and it’s failed. So I just want this to be something that has been planned and executed so we have something that we have been waiting for in our own hands, for Zimbabwe and for the disability constituency of Zimbabwe.

“I believe that after the bill has been passed, a lot of things are going to change for people with disabilities, especially for those in rural areas. I believe that it is going to open a lot of doors.”