Nanwor Auta is married woman with blindness from Langtang North local government of Plateau State. She is from a family of sixteen children and the only one with any form of disability, her father married two wives. She became a person with disability when she was in her early teenage years as a result of circumstances which cannot be medically be ascertained.
In a chat with our correspondents, Bulus Bala Izang and Joshua Yenle, she spoke about her family, education and discriminatory practices against her.
TQM. Were you able to have formal education?
Yes, l attended School for the blind children Gindiri and later Government Secondary School Bolbong, l also went Government Vocational Training Center for the blind zawan, in Mangu and Jos south local governments respectively.
TQM. Who paid for your education?
My mother, my father abandoned our mother and the eight of us her children.
TQM. What are you doing for a living as a wife and a mother?
For now, l am not doing anything.
TQM. You said you attended a vocational training center, why are you not putting into practice the skills you have learned there?
I want to, but l lack finance to buy materials to do some of the products l was taught.
TQM. What are some if the things you were taught at the center?
I learned how to make foot – mat, weaving of baskets, tools and chairs, round and square carpets as well as knitting.
TQM. Is your husband a person with disability?
Yes, he is a visual impaired person.
TQM. Is he working?
He works with the local government, but he have been sick for some years now , he had a stroke.
TQM. Is your daughter schooling?
Yes, she is in JSS 2.
TQM. Who is paying for her school fees?
My husband.
TQM. The house you are in, is it a rented place or it is your own?
It is our house .
TQM. Have you experience any form of discrimination in you family or in your community because of your disability?
My neighbors are abusing and discriminating against us (me and my daughter) because of my disability, knowing that, l don’t have the strength to fight them back. For example, when l go to fetch water, they usually will find a way of fetching before me, even though, l was there before them.
TQM. What do you do in such a situation?
I usually do nothing, even if l do, l don’t get the desired result, For example, a certain girl came and met me and my daughter fetching water, she removed our bucket and positioned her own, her reason is we are not fast. I asked her ,why is she behaving in that manner? she insulted me and l reported her to our pastors wife but she was still stubborn, l then reported the matter to a Civil Defence Office, the girl’s father pleaded, that should be allowed to go home and settled and that how the issue ended, without any steps taken to correct the girl’s negative behavior towards me.
TQM. Are you aware of Plateau State Disability Rights Commission, an Institution that is established to fight for the rights of persons with disabilities?
No. I don’t know anything about them.
TQM. Lastly, what do you have as a personal request to the government and other members of the society?
The government should come to my assistance by given my daughter a scholarship, especially now that my husband have been sick and a good percentage of his salary is being channeled towards payment of his medical bills, and l should be help with employment or some money to start the business of selling soup ingredients as well as making of foot mats and carpets.
TQM. Thank you Madam, we wish you the best of luck.
Thank you.
