International Deaf Children's Society

I should have known for I had been to Zambia on many previous occasions, but ever the naïve person, I assumed that I was being taken to the Gwembe Valley in Southern Zambia for a day’s outing as a break in the middle of a busy fortnight monitoring the projects funded by my charity Health Help International.

The journey to the valley was a tortuous one over the mountains on roads that were more like dried-up river beds where we had to stop on many occasions to remove boulders and debris out of the way and I was very doubtful if ‘The White Lady’ our 1968 Toyota Land Cruiser would make it but she proved to be a tough old lady and we eventually made it rattling down into the valley about lunch time in the heat of the mid-day sun. This was in March 2002, the start of the Zambian winter, but I have never been so hot in all my life, my mouth was parched and my tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of my mouth, no matter how much bottled water I drank.

But what a surprise awaited me, not the picnic area that I had expected, but rather a group of 36 hearing impaired children and their attendant parents sitting in a shelter specifically to meet me. This really was the last thing that I expected to find but they had been made aware of our work with deaf children in Monze town which we had come from and wanted me to see the plight of these valley children.

Not knowing quite what to do, I decided to meet all the children and speak with the parents and I was soon made aware of the real problems that they faced. Of these youngsters only 5 had been to any school, 3 also had sight impairment, 1 had fits and only a few had been seen by a doctor. What could HHI do to help was every parent’s question?

After some debate, it was decided that the best thing to do would be speak with Mr. Chikandula, the head teacher at the local school, St. Patrick’s and he turned out to be a most helpful man. The school was a collection of rather run-down mud brick buildings with corrugated iron roofs. Little glass was left in the windows and most of the desks and chairs were in very bad repair. However the children seemed happy and polite, standing to attention when we entered each room.

The Head offered us a two-room block that had been the original schoolrooms when the school was started in the 1930’s and they were in a very dilapidated condition. If we could refurbish them and find a teacher of the deaf, then he would be happy to have a number of the hearing impaired children at the school and would integrate them with the hearing children for those lessons that were practical such as craft work, library, etc.

The parents were most enthusiastic and promised that if we could provide the materials, then they would do all the labour and dig the new latrines that would be necessary. An estimate was made that around 7 million Zambian Kwacha would be required for the materials but as this worked out to £1,000 it seemed a very viable proposition and so the search started for a teacher.

"By the autumn of that year, the rooms had been refurbished, desks and chairs had been supplied by HHI and Peter Mphande, an excellent young teacher had been found. 17 pupils had been enrolled and so the deaf unit was ready to begin work at the beginning of September 2002.

It wasn’t long, however, before we had an emergency message, Peter was not being paid by the Government due to insufficient funds being available and he was struggling to survive on hand-outs from grateful parents. So we arranged to send out monthly payments to him for some time until eventually his salary was coming through from the Government.

I next met Peter in November 2003 in Monze when he had hitch-hiked from the valley as he had heard on the grapevine that I was making another visit and what a pleasure it was to meet him again and get an up-to-date report on how the children were doing. All seemed to be learning well and work was proceeding according to plan and he was following the prescribed syllabus with the help of one of the parents of a deaf pupil who was a teacher at the school. But he was very concerned about a number of children whom I had met on that fateful visit in 2002 who lived too far from the school to get there. Peter was visiting them in their villages when he could get transport to take him the 20 or so miles and what he really needed was a bicycle so that he could reach them on a regular basis. Schooling in Zambia is only a half day and his intention was to get to the outlying areas during the afternoon.

Of course what would really be ideal would be to set up boarding facilities for those outlying pupils and this is a project we are considering. That afternoon, £57 bought a bicycle and foot pump and he returned equipped to do even more for his young charges. I have rarely met any young man with such zeal to help others as Peter. When asked what inspired him to give his life to the work, he replied: “My interest and love is for the disabled who in our society are rejected people.”

He also told us about Obby, one of the young boys that we knew about previously. At the age of 8 he lost both parents and he and his three younger brothers and older sister had nowhere to go. None of the relatives were able to look after them and to make matters worse, the relatives of his late father came, as was the custom, and took their few animals leaving the children completely destitute.

Obby, being the eldest boy was now the bread winner but being deaf and dumb all he could do was beg and soon people got tired of him and treated him as being mentally retarded. Fortunately, Obby’s grandmother decided she must do something for them but at over 80 years of age, which is extremely old in that country, there was not much she could do, but she did get him to St. Patrick’s and when he can he attends and enjoys the school. But it is not easy for the grandmother to cope with all these children especially Obby with his deafness. Peter informed me that Obby sometimes lives with his other grandfather but tends to be bullied by the local children in that area so life is still difficult for him and Peter takes a special interest in him because of his situation.

It was with much regret that I also received a message in January, 2004 to say that with the very heavy rains that had arrived, the roofs and some of the walls of the classrooms for the hearing pupils had collapsed and that with the start of the new school year in February they would all be crowding in to the refurbished unit for the deaf children which was the only one that was habitable. Could HHI help again?

So, as this article is written in February, 2004, we are trying to get to the Valley to ascertain the exact position and what finance would be required but it is a hard enough place to get to in the dry and almost impossible in the wet. But we shall succeed in due course and decide what, if anything we can do to relieve the situation for all children, both hearing and hearing impaired.