Monday, June 11, 2001 - Web posted at 5:27:39 AM GMT

Breaking the myth: Disability isn't inability

A GROUP of deaf children danced synchronously to music on tape in one of Windhoek's shopping malls at the weekend.

Their tiny bodies twisted and turned in harmony with the beat of the song although they could not hear the music.

Saturday morning shoppers walking past or using escalators and invited guests marvelled, some with mouths wide open, at this extraordinary feat where the children's only guide was a sign language interpreter.

These deaf children had joined other people with disabilities to celebrate the national day of the disabled.

National Disability Day fell on June 10, yesterday, but the National Federation of People with Disabilities in Namibia (NFPDN) felt it was better to celebrate on Saturday, for obvious reasons, to raise awareness among socalled able-bodied people.

Gerson Mutendere, the chairperson of the NFPDN, said the objectives of the celebration were to "raise awareness on disabilities issues and to market our abilities as people with abilities to the general public".

Mutendere added that the day was organised "to break the myth [that] disability is inability".

Ombudswoman Bience Gawanas, who is also the patron of the NFPDN, said disabled people did not need "sympathy" and were not asking for charity but social barriers prevented their "full integration" into the community.

The day was also chosen to launch the African Decade of Disabled Persons, which started in December and would run through 2009.

Prime Minister Hage Geingob, who launched the day, said vulnerable people were only "vulnerable because they have not received opportunities".

Geingob talked about measures his office and Government was taking in order to integrate disabled people within Namibia's daily economic and social activities.

He has proposed the establishment of a board that would help draft legislation to make life easier for those who have physical disabilities, and programmes to raise awareness among the able-bodied awareness through the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation.

The premier said entrance to his offices was being renovated to make access by the disabled easier.

"We are going to make it compulsory that all buildings must have a ramp," Geingob promised.

Reigning Miss Namibia, Michelle Heitha, departed from the tradition of making a speech at public gathering by dedicating a poem to the physically and mentally disabled.

Some of the lines read: I am worth celebratig!I am unique,I have unlimited potential, waiting to be unleashedSo while I am here

Make me a part of you

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