A hearing impairment did not steal his hunger for success

He has a hearing impairment but did not fail to listen to and follow his dream. Abdul Kalumba struggled all the way through vocational training and now owns a carpentry shop.

I first met Kalumba about a month ago at the Uganda Society for the Deaf Vocational Training Centre in Mengo, a Kampala suburb. I had gone to see the principal, Emmanuel Kiberu Bampigga for an interview on a story I was working on.

As we chatted in his office, a dark-skinned youthful male who seemed to be in his 20s entered and stood at the corner of the room.

After about two minutes, the principal stood up and made a few gestures at him using his hands. In return, the youthful man did the same. They interacted for about two minutes and after wards, the dark-skinned youth left the office with a beaming smile on his face.

When Kiberu returned to his seat, he told me the young man was 24-year-old Abdul Kalumba. A member of the vocational centre with a hearing impairment.

Despite his handicap, Kalumba is making a fortune out of his carpentry work using the skills he acquired at the deaf ‘s vocational centre.

When I asked the principal the trick Kalumba uses to win over the hearts of clients despite his hearing impairment, he stated, “Kalumba just uses a note book and pen to communicate with them when selling his furniture.”

Since the little information I had just obtained from the principal somehow intrigued me, I decided to ask him if it was possible to have an interview with Kalumba as well.

“Yes, yes, of course, you can,” Kiberu answered affirmatively.

“I know he will tell you a lot of interesting things about himself,” the principal continued as he dashed out of his office.
After about five minutes, he came back and informed me that Kalumba had agreed to have the interview.

As we interacted, Perez Nyanzi, a 57-year-old worker at the vocational centre helped out with the sign language interpretation.

Abdul Kalumba was born to Sheik Mustafa Ssekimuli and Kamiyati Namazzi in 1988 at Mulago hospital.

He was born with perfectly fine hearing functions. However, he became deaf in his primary three after suffering from both measles and malaria.

“I just woke up one morning and just could not hear anything,” he says.

After realising that he could not hear anything, Kalumba remembers running up and down the house crying. Much as he was not hearing what his parents were asking him about after they came to his rescue, Kalumba repeatedly shouted that both his ears were blocked and that he was not hearing anything.

After he was taken for several check-ups, it was confirmed that Kalumba had completely lost his hearing senses because of the illnesses. His speech however, was not affected.