Miss-Delectable
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The first UDSM deaf and dumb student
Physical disability is an affliction that can strike anyone, either right from birth or subsequently. Ms. Aneth Gerana is a deaf and dumb young lady. Recently, Jacquline Mosha, interviewed her.
Here`s her story, which is both sad and fascinating, but whose bottom line is that physical disability does not compromise the intellectual ability of a gifted individual who pronounces an emphatic NO to failure and dejection.
It is a sunny morning. The time is nine o`clock. As the commuter bus in which I am riding approaches the beautiful, green grass-carpeted campus of the University of Dar es Salaam, my heart is aglow with anxiety.
I have an appointment with a young lady at Tanzania`s citadel of academia, which is known more fondly by the light nick-name, the Hill - to reflect its geographical location on high ground - than the officious University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
The anxiety, plus a bit of tension, stems from the fact that the person I am set to meet isn`t ordinary, to put it mildly and yet not deliberately offensively. For Aneth Gerana is both deaf and dumb.
Upon disembarking from the bus, I scan around the vicinity, on the look-out for a lady wearing pink dress and a pair of shoes of matching colour, which she had informed me via an emissary would constitute her identification symbol.
I spot her immediately and join her, plus a middle-aged man, Singo Gerden, her interpreter.
After the usual introductory pleasantries, Aneth, using sign language that Singo deciphers and de-codes to me, kicks off the discussion with a disclaimer:
``Many people are puzzled to see me in class and some suspect that my performance is poor and that I am just being dragged along out of sympathy on account of my physical defects.
This is utterly wrong. People with whom I studied in secondary school can sincerely testify that I was very bright even in that earlier phase of my academic career.``
She explains that initially, she encountered difficulties in getting other people to note her physical defects because deafness and dumbness are not as easily noticeable as, say, blindness and being crippled.
Aneth was born in the historically famous Ujiji village near the Lake Tanganyika port town of Kigoma. Her mother is Ms Juliana Mabulla.
She is a first year student of sociology at the Hill, which she joined last year .She explains that she is the fifth born in a family of nine, five of whom are girls.
Aneth got her primary education at the Tabora school for the deaf from 1993 to 1999, and subsequently enrolled at Ruvu Secondary School in 2000, sitting her `0` level exams in 2003.
Thereafter, she joined Iringa Girls` Secondary School for her History, Geography Literature `A` level combination that climaxed in 2006. She scored 10 points in the division two category - an impressive performance indeed.
Not content with high school education, Aneth applied to the UDSM, to read law, communication or sociology. Law, she says, was her first priority, and explains why:
``I gunned for the course because I wanted to become a lawyer and specifically a fighter for deaf people, many of whose legal rights are trampled upon because of inability to express themselves effectively through sign language.``
Communication was also an option because she was eager to become a novelist.
Aneth says by God`s will, her dream of becoming either a lawyer or an author was shattered by not being enrolled in either programme that would have led her to either of the professions.
Her spirits weren`t shattered though, she says, while smiling broadly, pointing out that she has thrown her whole heart into the sociology course, to equip herself with the ammunition to fight for the rights of the deaf if she completes the course successfully in 2009.
Aneth says the situation was tough in primary and secondary schools as there were no interpreters for deaf pupils, but in high school the situation was relatively better. She extends gratitude to the support of a friend called Editha, whom she taught sign language and who in turn acted as her interpreter.
The fact that notes were written on blackboards and books were provided, was also helpful.
At the university, she further explains, educational life is tough because she is the only deaf student and no provisions have been made for her convenience. She initially became utterly disillusioned and almost surrendered.
A friend called Eva rescued her through lending her lecture notes. Requests for help to the authorities didn`t yield positive results at first.
But happily, a compassionate female employee gave Aneth a hearing aid. Ultimately, the authorities took up her plight and availed an interpreter to Aneth in October last year.
She is thankful for that development but says the authorities at the Hill must make provision of interpreters for deaf students a policy issue, since many other deaf students may join it; and probably those who may have done so in the past were discouraged by lack of the facility.
Aneth says lessons are tough and more-so the examinations on which she has embarked for advancing to the second year, but she is fully determined to sail through.
She notes that the university has many students with other forms of disabilities, but she is the only deaf one. This, she points out, shows that education for deaf people has not been given due priority a shortcoming that she stresses must be reversed.
Aneth says her relatives can grasp her conversation through the bit of voice that she manages to produce, but for those outside the orbit, she has to make several repetitions, and sometimes resorts to sign language that not many people understand.
Rewinding the memory tape, Aneth says she was born normal, but when she was about four months old, her cheeks swelled, and after recovering, she became deaf.
The interpreter, Mr. Singo, who is the Chairman of the Tanzania Association of Sign Language Interpreters (TASLI), says he accompanies Aneth to lecture rooms, but cannot join her during group discussions at night because he lives far away from the campus. However, he plans to move closer during the second year, to give her full assistance.
Overall, he says the job is tough because during lectures, he cannot write notes for her, and he cannot delve too deeply into lessons for her benefit.
The job is also tiresome, he says, and when he cannot make it to the campus, such as when he is sick or bereaved, she misses his services, For a start, he has appealed to the authorities to reinforce his one-man service with an additional interpreter. Poviding residential houses for interpreters at the campus would also be helpful, he adds.
Aneth bitterly criticizes mischievous people who mock sign language as a monkeys` medium of communication. This, she says, amounts to stigmatizing deaf people whose condition isn`t of their free choice but a manifestation of God`s will.
She stresses that the language should be taught in schools, to enable as many people as possible communicate with the deaf.
Attitudinal adjustment is also vital, she says, calling upon parents with deaf children to enroll them in schools, and not to feel embarrassed of being associated with them biologically.
She cites her case, whereby she didn`t give up and is actually aiming to become a professor.
Parental encouragement was part of the driving force, she says,
Her close friends, Lightness Sadick and Maryamu Said say they are co-operating very closely with Aneth, which the latter says is psychologically very uplifting.
They praise her as a bright, friendly, co-operative young lady of whom they are very fond. What`s more, they have started picking up the sign language, thereby enabling them to communicate with her more easily.
The Pesident of the World Association of Deaf people, Dk. Liisa Kauppienen, is quoted to have once remarked that by the year 2020, deaf people would be able to be integrated in the general workforce in various professions, as well as become active participants in politics.
One thing is for certain: Aneth Gerana is headed in that direction, because what clearly comes across in her remarks and general disposition points to the sky being the ceiling for an excessively ambitious person like her.
Physical disability is an affliction that can strike anyone, either right from birth or subsequently. Ms. Aneth Gerana is a deaf and dumb young lady. Recently, Jacquline Mosha, interviewed her.
Here`s her story, which is both sad and fascinating, but whose bottom line is that physical disability does not compromise the intellectual ability of a gifted individual who pronounces an emphatic NO to failure and dejection.
It is a sunny morning. The time is nine o`clock. As the commuter bus in which I am riding approaches the beautiful, green grass-carpeted campus of the University of Dar es Salaam, my heart is aglow with anxiety.
I have an appointment with a young lady at Tanzania`s citadel of academia, which is known more fondly by the light nick-name, the Hill - to reflect its geographical location on high ground - than the officious University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
The anxiety, plus a bit of tension, stems from the fact that the person I am set to meet isn`t ordinary, to put it mildly and yet not deliberately offensively. For Aneth Gerana is both deaf and dumb.
Upon disembarking from the bus, I scan around the vicinity, on the look-out for a lady wearing pink dress and a pair of shoes of matching colour, which she had informed me via an emissary would constitute her identification symbol.
I spot her immediately and join her, plus a middle-aged man, Singo Gerden, her interpreter.
After the usual introductory pleasantries, Aneth, using sign language that Singo deciphers and de-codes to me, kicks off the discussion with a disclaimer:
``Many people are puzzled to see me in class and some suspect that my performance is poor and that I am just being dragged along out of sympathy on account of my physical defects.
This is utterly wrong. People with whom I studied in secondary school can sincerely testify that I was very bright even in that earlier phase of my academic career.``
She explains that initially, she encountered difficulties in getting other people to note her physical defects because deafness and dumbness are not as easily noticeable as, say, blindness and being crippled.
Aneth was born in the historically famous Ujiji village near the Lake Tanganyika port town of Kigoma. Her mother is Ms Juliana Mabulla.
She is a first year student of sociology at the Hill, which she joined last year .She explains that she is the fifth born in a family of nine, five of whom are girls.
Aneth got her primary education at the Tabora school for the deaf from 1993 to 1999, and subsequently enrolled at Ruvu Secondary School in 2000, sitting her `0` level exams in 2003.
Thereafter, she joined Iringa Girls` Secondary School for her History, Geography Literature `A` level combination that climaxed in 2006. She scored 10 points in the division two category - an impressive performance indeed.
Not content with high school education, Aneth applied to the UDSM, to read law, communication or sociology. Law, she says, was her first priority, and explains why:
``I gunned for the course because I wanted to become a lawyer and specifically a fighter for deaf people, many of whose legal rights are trampled upon because of inability to express themselves effectively through sign language.``
Communication was also an option because she was eager to become a novelist.
Aneth says by God`s will, her dream of becoming either a lawyer or an author was shattered by not being enrolled in either programme that would have led her to either of the professions.
Her spirits weren`t shattered though, she says, while smiling broadly, pointing out that she has thrown her whole heart into the sociology course, to equip herself with the ammunition to fight for the rights of the deaf if she completes the course successfully in 2009.
Aneth says the situation was tough in primary and secondary schools as there were no interpreters for deaf pupils, but in high school the situation was relatively better. She extends gratitude to the support of a friend called Editha, whom she taught sign language and who in turn acted as her interpreter.
The fact that notes were written on blackboards and books were provided, was also helpful.
At the university, she further explains, educational life is tough because she is the only deaf student and no provisions have been made for her convenience. She initially became utterly disillusioned and almost surrendered.
A friend called Eva rescued her through lending her lecture notes. Requests for help to the authorities didn`t yield positive results at first.
But happily, a compassionate female employee gave Aneth a hearing aid. Ultimately, the authorities took up her plight and availed an interpreter to Aneth in October last year.
She is thankful for that development but says the authorities at the Hill must make provision of interpreters for deaf students a policy issue, since many other deaf students may join it; and probably those who may have done so in the past were discouraged by lack of the facility.
Aneth says lessons are tough and more-so the examinations on which she has embarked for advancing to the second year, but she is fully determined to sail through.
She notes that the university has many students with other forms of disabilities, but she is the only deaf one. This, she points out, shows that education for deaf people has not been given due priority a shortcoming that she stresses must be reversed.
Aneth says her relatives can grasp her conversation through the bit of voice that she manages to produce, but for those outside the orbit, she has to make several repetitions, and sometimes resorts to sign language that not many people understand.
Rewinding the memory tape, Aneth says she was born normal, but when she was about four months old, her cheeks swelled, and after recovering, she became deaf.
The interpreter, Mr. Singo, who is the Chairman of the Tanzania Association of Sign Language Interpreters (TASLI), says he accompanies Aneth to lecture rooms, but cannot join her during group discussions at night because he lives far away from the campus. However, he plans to move closer during the second year, to give her full assistance.
Overall, he says the job is tough because during lectures, he cannot write notes for her, and he cannot delve too deeply into lessons for her benefit.
The job is also tiresome, he says, and when he cannot make it to the campus, such as when he is sick or bereaved, she misses his services, For a start, he has appealed to the authorities to reinforce his one-man service with an additional interpreter. Poviding residential houses for interpreters at the campus would also be helpful, he adds.
Aneth bitterly criticizes mischievous people who mock sign language as a monkeys` medium of communication. This, she says, amounts to stigmatizing deaf people whose condition isn`t of their free choice but a manifestation of God`s will.
She stresses that the language should be taught in schools, to enable as many people as possible communicate with the deaf.
Attitudinal adjustment is also vital, she says, calling upon parents with deaf children to enroll them in schools, and not to feel embarrassed of being associated with them biologically.
She cites her case, whereby she didn`t give up and is actually aiming to become a professor.
Parental encouragement was part of the driving force, she says,
Her close friends, Lightness Sadick and Maryamu Said say they are co-operating very closely with Aneth, which the latter says is psychologically very uplifting.
They praise her as a bright, friendly, co-operative young lady of whom they are very fond. What`s more, they have started picking up the sign language, thereby enabling them to communicate with her more easily.
The Pesident of the World Association of Deaf people, Dk. Liisa Kauppienen, is quoted to have once remarked that by the year 2020, deaf people would be able to be integrated in the general workforce in various professions, as well as become active participants in politics.
One thing is for certain: Aneth Gerana is headed in that direction, because what clearly comes across in her remarks and general disposition points to the sky being the ceiling for an excessively ambitious person like her.
