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.

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.

After all these are in place, he says he will start thinking of marrying his current girlfriend. She also has a hearing impairment.

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