EXHIBITION – PERSONAL STORIES OF DISABILITY
> EXHIBITION – PERSONAL STORIES OF DISABILITY
Exhibition: Personal Stories of Disability
Ernestine: 33 years old, a Kerosene Seller, Yaoundé, Cameroon: “I always have medicines with me. When people see me, they don’t believe that I’m sick, so for them to believe, I always go out carrying those medicines.
Pierre – 34 years old, works in the media, Yaoundé, Cameroon: Sickle cell children have always been stigmatized. Some said I was the sort of child that brought bad luck, and they asked my mother to leave me in a field so that I could die.
Rita: 35 years old, Disability Rights Activist, Yaoundé, Cameroon: I was told by my parents that when I presented the symptoms of poliomyelitis and started losing the use of my lower left limb, most people… asked lots of questions as to why I was like that.
Régine – Student, Yaoundé, Cameroon: When I was growing up, disability did affect me a lot, because as a child, you want to play, you cannot play, you want to belong where children are, you cannot belong, you want to do your own things, you are not able to do them.
Elim – 33 years old, Orerokpe, Nigeria: According to my mother, on a fateful day which happened to be a Christmas Day, she served me food and went out to get something, leaving me in the house… My mother told me that the neighbour poisoned my food without me knowing.
Elsie – 30 years old, a teacher, Delta State, Nigeria: Being physically challenged in Nigeria is not easy! Because the government… I don’t know whether to say they are trying to assist those of us that are physically challenged.
Bello – 41 years old, a Craft Work Instructor, Ekpoma, Nigeria: You know, in Nigeria we mostly believe that when things are happening like this blindness, it comes from the family or whatever. The spiritualist gave a prophecy that the problem was coming from my family anyway…
Fathia – 36 years old, Self-employed, Orerokpe, Nigeria: I am a graduate by the grace of God. I know how it is trying to scale through school with this condition. Having friends is not easy because nobody wants to make friends with a physically challenged person.
Mike – 48 years old, Web Designer, Cape Town, South Africa: The biggest problem is that we are still, in a way, invisible, because a lot of the people that have disabilities are not even able to leave their home or aren’t visible in the public eye.
Blessing – 38 years old, Administrator, Cape Town, South Africa: When I came out of hospital and went back to the community, everyone said things like, OK, wow, oh right, oh, she’s not going to die, we thought she was dead, she ended up in a chair.
Elizabeth – 87 years old, retired cane weaver, Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa: For me, how shall I put it, I was never able to see. I was born blind, so I don’t know what it is like to see and to do things with sight.
Lucy – Disability support worker, Cape Town, South Africa: I have albinism, so my skin, hair and eyes do not have any pigmentation. So, in terms of my skin, obviously I don’t look like anybody else.
Maxwell – 31 years old, Cape Town, South Africa: I am disabled, but I wasn’t born disabled. I was involved in a car accident in January 2021 and it damaged my spinal cord and I am a paraplegic. Living with disability, especially in my situation, is still new...
Victoire – 27 years old, Masters student, Yaoundé, Cameroon: To make it clear, I wasn’t born with any disability. It happened in 2013. I was doing my daily activities and I was getting ready to go out and I felt a pain. I was unconscious for a long time…