No borders: Hiring the disabled can still get you results

Like any other Ugandans, the skills, experience and educational qualifications of the deaf and dumb are widely varied, but they tend to be an under-utilised talent pool.

If companies look beyond someone’s disability and seize the potential of everyone who wants to work for them, they could benefit immensely.

A recent report from the International Labour Organisation: Disabled persons and employment, indicates that disabled persons comprise of more than 600 million of the seven billion people that make the global population.

“While many disabled persons are successfully employed and fully included in society, as a group, they face disproportionate poverty and severe unemployment,” the report reads in part.

“A lack of global data about their numbers and situation is only one piece of evidence supporting the discrimination and exclusion they often face. National data, when it exists, verifies the fact that people with disabilities, and especially women, are less likely to access education, training and employment of any kind.”
Some companies in Uganda are adopting employment of disabled persons in their policies.

“We strongly adhere to our human resource policy that does not discriminate against job seekers and employees on any grounds. We believe that including people with physical impairment in our workforce increases our pool of talent and skill,” Ms Brenda Kyasiimire, the human resource manager at Rwenzori Bottling Company Limited, says.

Recognised
Ms Barbra Gwosusa and MsFlorence Aguti have not had a fair share of life because both are deaf and dumb.
It is with their current job placements at Rwenzori Bottling that they are starting to realise their worth.

Ms Aguti studied in Arua District but later moved to Jinja District where she studied a tailoring course.

Tailoring was not earning her enough money to buy “beautiful shoes and jewelry” as the 29-year-old says through an interpreter Isaac Lukyamuzi. She later joined the teaching profession at Gayaza School for the Deaf tutoring primary one and two in sign language.

However, she did not give up on the job search. She applied for a vacancy at the company last September and luckily there was a vacancy that she is currently filling.

“My life is better now because of the good working conditions and relations I have with other employees. Everyone loves and cares for us,” Ms Aguti says. “I am more confident now and have realised that I can do anything that a normal person can do or even better.”

For the future, Ms Aguti dreams of meeting a good man who will love her for who she is.

Bitter side
Her colleague Ms Gwosusa has tasted the bitter side of being employed with a disability.

She studied in Ntinda School for the Deaf. However, she did not go beyond Senior Four because of school fees constraints. She was previously working as a caterer in a hotel in Wandegeya but could not stomach the oppression she was facing from some of her workmates and the Shs60,000 per month was so meagre.

“I was reduced to rubbish in that place. No one believed in me not even the managers,” she said, engrossed in deep thought.

She threw in the towel early this year and a visit to her former school cast good luck upon her.
It is her former headteacher in Ntinda who told her about the openings at Rwenzori.

“My mother passed on when I was still very young. I am thankful to God that I can now look after myself. I am no longer a burden to my father, who also hardly manages on his own,” says the 29-year-old whose dream is to board a plane and become a manager at the company.

“I am glad that I took on these people in my department because they are my best employees. They are diligent and hardworking,” Mr Innocent Obong, the quality manager at Rwenzori says, lashing at those who look at employing the deaf in bad light.

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