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.

As he struggled to come to terms with his hearing impairment, he also found it hard to communicate with other individuals especially his six sisters and three brothers.

“They often misunderstood my gestures. When I, for example, gestured that I wanted something to drink, they always thought drinking water and yet I might have meant either juice or tea,” Kalumba gestures with some sort of smile.

How does he communicate?
He resorted to communicating by writing.

After completing his Primary Seven at Butambala School for the deaf, Kalumba finally joined the vocational institute to acquire skills in carpentry.

Instead of going out to the world after completing his three years of study at the institute, Kalumba decided to stay at the vocational centre.

“All the tools that I needed for work were right at the centre so instead of going and wasting my little savings, I decided to stay and kick-start my carpentry work,” Kalumba says.

Eight years down the road, the focused youth boasts of making furniture for places and companies such as Gadhafi Mosque, Aya Group of Companies and Sheraton hotel.

He gets his clients through the administrators as well as some of the centre’s parents.

“During the term’s closing day for example, I display the furniture on the compound. Fortunately, I always get some of the parents buying my products,” he says.

As much as Kalumba can speak, he does not do that with his clients.

“It is just wastage of time since I cannot hear their responses, so what I do is write down every piece of information that I intend to communicate,” he says.

This piece of information most times includes the reason he is communicates this way. When I ask him how much money at least one of the companies has paid him, he simply gestures the million sign. Using my note book, he goes ahead and writes down the prices of some of his products. The panal doors cost Shs380,000, the dining tables of different designs range between Shs700,000 and Shs900,000 while the mahogany beds are Shs900,000.

The profits from the carpentry sales is what he has used to rent a-two-roomed house in Kasubi as well as buying a 50 ft by 100ft plot of land at Kasangati. He is building an eight-roomed house on this plot.

“I am only remaining with roofing and plastering the house and after that is done, I will move in,” he says.

When the house is done, Kalumba hopes to start operating his furniture company which he will name Reliance Quality Furniture Company.