Disabilty for possibility

Disabilty for possibility


We set down to chat to one of the most active physically disabled woman i know, when i say active i mean she is involved in so many movements and hold high possession in local and provincial organisation for people who are disabled, she stands as a voice for many in her community. Andiswa Kakaza. Many will know her as a clerk at the TB hospital in Matatiele Khotsong TB hospital.

She is the oldest of four siblings, to a single mother who was unemployed, Andiswa finished her high school and because she could not afford to carry on, she had to find work, to support herself and her siblings including her mother. She took on the role of a mother to her younger siblings and had to pay for their school fees and make sure that her mother and they were taken care of. She then went on to educating herself, furthering her studies and has attained a diploma in HRM; she was the first person in her family to attain any high education.

She was not born with her disability; she was involved in a car accident in 1990 that left one leg shorter than the other. She tells me that she had a great support system, her family. She tell me that she grew up in a religious family that didn't believe in using medicine, and so her aunt being a nurse knew he importance of getting medical attention to my condition, took me in as her own. She tells me that she was teased as a young child she didn't not understand why this was happening to her. She says any time she would see people gossiping she would think they are talking about her and she would get defensive and fight them. She grew up with her older brother (cousins) who taught her how to fight, she tells me that she was great fighter, but she started a fight she could not win she would play her disability to her advantage. She says inn high school she stopped fighting, because she felt excepted and part of everyone. By the way she never had problems with getting boyfriends, but she feared being played or used, she knew she was different so that was her biggest problem with dating.


I asked her how she feels when people stare on the streets, she tells me that people have different views of "them"; some people think that disable people are luck, even asking them for lotto numbers. She feels that disable people have been oppressed, they have not been provided with equal opportunity for a good education only 3 in 10 people with a disability are educated. she tells me that the is a stereotype of disabled people, even when applying for a job as soon as someone hears the name disabled they don’t think you can do anything, and that is no the cause many disabled people are able to do a lot of thing that abled body people can do.


They don’t like the term physically challenged, because to them the disability will not pass, a challenge is something that will pass, there prefer physically disabled. They are capable, but limited by the environment.
When she looks in the mirror she does not see her disability but she sees a person, just like any other person next to her. She tell me, she is human first, and then disabled.
Here all the boards she serves on: Local, District, Provincial -NYDA, social Development. Body representing Disabled people, education programs- awareness programs.


I asked her one important question; "are you happy". She gave simple answer, yes she is happy. Thinking of where she comes from, to where God has places her, she thanks God for her brain, from taking her from A-B-C. She is proud of her family as big as it is, i was the first graduate.
She want people to treat people with disabilities with respect and know they are to are humans.