Disability is not Inability
HUGS supporters are changing the lives of disabled children in Uganda. The last time we visited St Francis de Sales Special Needs School we saw blind children playing football, deaf children dancing and one particularly tenacious boy, aged 8, who has never been able to stand on his deformed legs, gleefully challenge the other children to a running race. It’s a joy to see. At Good Shepherd School, the first HUGS school for differently abled children, the kids gossip and chatter in sign language. The laughter is all the louder.
The magic ingredient to make all of this happen is self-belief. Attending Good Shepherd and St Francis de Sales Schools are 200 children who are told every day that they are important and respected. They respond by behaving with respect to others and by developing a deep sense of their own value. This is no easy feat and is hard won against prevailing negative social attitudes.
Just by existing, both schools, challenge restrictive cultural norms. For many in Uganda, a child with disability is shameful; something to hide away. Many children will never leave their homes, for fear of being seen, and the idea of an education is so unrealistic, it doesn’t form part of their dreams. It is a waste of immense talent. On top of this, many of Uganda’s poorest families have children with disability, and what small amounts of money they have, will rarely be invested in that child’s education.
As Uganda moves, with the rest of the world, to using assistive technologies; walking aids, wheelchairs, computers and hearing aids, there are going to be countless new opportunities for differently abled people, never previously conceived. The children at St Francis de Sales and Good Shepherd school, are going to be well placed to take advantage of them.
HUGS needs your continued support. It takes teachers with advanced skills, smaller classrooms and more equipment up-skill a child with disabilities. HUGS supports the education of many children with disability thought our sponsorship scheme, because parents can simply not afford the higher school fees. We find it is well worth the investment.
Take Brenda, who we have sponsored since primary school, who became an official National Ambassador of Deaf Ugandans, after winning Miss Deaf Uganda. HUGS donors continue to pay her tuition fees to become a Special Needs Signing Teacher. Yudera, who has been blind since birth, has completed her degree in Social Work, thanks to our donors, and now helps to uphold human rights in her work.
Both St Francis de Sales and Good Shepherd Schools have children who need a helping hand with their fees, to start the new academic year in February. A year at primary School costs £250. If you would like to sponsor a child, please email us hugs.chair@gmail.com. And to quote the moto of St Francis de Sales School ‘Disability is not inability’.