Living a life of hope through engaging in art and crafts

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” This quote by Nelson Mandela inspired Rehema Nantege, a textile production manager who works at the Kampala School of the physically handicapped.

“I quite clearly remember being tied to clutches most of my childhood,” recalls Nantege, now in her late 20s, of the childhood she spent in hospital.

Nantege was abandoned as a newborn when her mother discovered she would never walk. Her legs were crippled. After an unhappy time in a children’s Home, where she was picked from, and with foster families who were unable to cope with her disability, Nantege was luckily adopted by a Good Samaritan family recommended by her church. Before her eventual adoption, she remembers no one ever thinking of giving her life skills to take on an independent life.

Nothing is too impossible
Her memories are among those featured in a project that encourages schools to create artistic works even with their disabilities. The highlight of the project that took place on July 27 was an exhibition dubbed “Art awareness exhibition” where the school opened it gates to the public to showcase the creative side of the children with disabilities.

“I am proud to be able to teach and help young disabled children learn skills that can enable them live independently,” she says with a wide smile. As she guided me through the different work she teaches, one of her pupils called out.

“Please come and see my work,” Peace Nakintu, a primary six pupil called out. Nakintu was arranging different letters to form words. She squinted her eyes as she stretched out her hands to spell the letters, which she carefully lay on a paper to indicate her name. Just after two letters, she cried out in discontent, “Teacher I don’t see my letter A.”

There Nantege came to her rescue by pointing at the letter using a stick; slowly Nakintu regained her focus to continue spelling her name with a smile of contentment as she rubbed the tears that had started forming her eyes due to frustration at failing to locate the letter “A”.

An easier way to learn
Roland Roldan Tibirusya an artist and volunteer at the school, says, “I believe that these children are not disabled, but rather differently abled.”
Tubirusya believes painting allows people to learn a lot without feeling they are being lectured. He adds that, during the workshops held to create awareness of the children’s ability to participate in art, he became aware that students were starting to understand the problems people with disabilities face over the years.

During my interaction with Tubirusya, the sight of Loius Lorris adding his touch to the souvenir painting that stood prominent next to the school’s main hall caught my attention. Hurriedly, I walked to him. He is a Primary Six pupil whose life has been permanently attached to a wheel chair because he is decapitated. It was caused by rickets that he suffered in the early years of his life. Lorris was painting a flower. Even if you could not attain what shape the flower was, the bright colours he used definitely drive you to what the child is relating to. “I know how to draw a flower very well, if teacher Roland gave us marks I would be the best,” Lorris says with a smile and the confidence of an expert.

A few meters away was a class room with the children concentrating on different activities, some coloured different outlined pictures using crayons, others tried their prowess at writing, while a few looked on as people shared light moments with the children. The most fascinating was Simon Lwanga, in a wheel chair, who was making a necklace by arranging paper beads on a string. With the help of his teacher, he carefully directed the string through the hole drilled in the beads. When I asked how many necklaces he makes a day. He briefly ignored me, but later with a sigh of triumph in passing the string through the hole he shouted “nine”.

A bright future ahead
Francis Mugisha, a facilitator on leather works stresses that a textbook approach to disabled pupils is “quite dry”. He says the awareness art exhibition provides a unique way that combines disability, social context and arts allows pupils to get into the psyche of the public.

“Of course, schools are about education, but they are also about fostering cultural and social understanding and enabling students to be aware of everybody in society,” he added.
Daniel Ochola, a sponsor of one of the children agrees that artic skills imparted have changed the perception and inclusion of disabled people since his involvement in sponsoring them has showed that disabled people once given the right opportunities and backing can achieve anything. However, he fears for the future. “I am not a political person, but even I can see the injustice of what is happening to many disabled people today through government policies that view them being idle and a drain on resources. “Reducing funding or cutting benefits is really not the way forward.

This is a massive backward step and actually takes us back to the bad times that we showed through the work of the project,” he added
Tibirusya believes disabled children today still face major challenges. He says, “It is more accepted in schools and in social situations, but I think that the children internally still struggle.

I don’t think you can take away that struggle and that is part and parcel of life as a disabled person. And I don’t think, in some respects, that some of that’s got any easier for the children. I tell my pupils to be their own person stand up for who they are but acknowledge your disability and be proud to acknowledge it.”

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