Tapiwa

Tapiwa lives in Harare and works for the Disabled Women’s Support Organisation (DWSO). He is a competitive athlete, and a youth champion for the Equal World campaign.

“My involvement with DWSO started in 2017 when I was in form one, and I started to join many clubs. DWSO gives everybody – persons with a disability and persons without a disability – the opportunity to be included. I was born with intellectual disability. I was in special classes from form one up to form four – I experienced what life is like in special classes, and I learned a lot of things.

“I travelled to Europe with sports athletics. I’m a long-distance runner and I was recently in Germany [to compete]. In 2020, I was elected Junior Sportsman of the Year with a Disability in Zimbabwe. And I’ve been world record holder for the Special Olympics.”

“Our own communities do not accept us, and we face some obstacles, things like discrimination and segregation through our siblings and our friends. Sometimes, they don’t want to play with us. They say, ‘I’ll get a disability if I’m playing with someone with a disability’.’ It was hard for me, so I said, ‘Let me just start athletics or find something good for me.’. It gives me power. It’s a motivation to me as: my disability is my motivation to say I can do it; I can do it.

“There’s no easy road. It’s a painful road. You have to turn that pain into progress; without failure, you are not going anywhere. You have to work very hard as a person with a disability. You must work very hard to face and challenge yourself. You can do it; nothing changes until your mind changes.

“It’s hard because our societies or our families sometimes do not accept us. They say, ‘No, let them go.’. Even visitors who are coming say, ‘No, go to your room; we don’t want to see you in this room.’.  It’s hard because you might think that I have my family and can share my moments and ideas with them. They sometimes say, ‘No, I don’t want to hear anything from you.  Just quiet.’. It’s hard for us as persons with a disability.

“We want persons with disabilities to be removed from charity or from people giving us something. But as persons with disabilities, we have to work very hard and show the people we can do it. No matter what our disability, we can do it. We can achieve our goals no matter what. Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”