• Welcome to Rwanda Organization of Persons with deaf Blindness

Success Stories

Our First Story

Persons with Deafblindness have often been hidden and had no possibility to communicate easily. Because Deafblindness is a low occurrence disability, persons with Deafblindness live far apart from each other, scattered in the country and few people have any idea of how to deal with them. People with this condition are often assumed to be having intellectual disabilities. They live for a long time without uniformed form of communication until old enough to improvise some signs.

These signs are usually the most essential statements of needs, such as to go to toilet, to eat, to drink, etc. The rest of the time, they are silent, unable to neither communicate nor learn anything with anybody. This case happened to FURAHA Jean Marie, who is actually Chair Person of Rwanda Organization of Persons with Deafblindness (ROPDB) as he has been elected by the organizations general assembly in November 2018 for the first time ROPDB's General Assembly. FURAHA Jean Marie is a strong and capable Leader who originally used sign language but applied a lot of vigor when he learnt some tactile signs.

This presented difficulties for the interpreter or communication recipient and other people. After the training on the tactile sign language as the main form of communication for the people with Deafblindness, now he works out exercises and flexes the hands and fingers to improve the strokes of his signs and is now more confident of the correct movement. His changes has testified that persons with Deafblindness can learn to communicate and lead to a fuller life, able to access more information and speak to other people if they learn tactile sign language and Braille. Currently FURAHA Jean Marie and UWIZEYIMANA Naomie started to study Braille.

  • 2nd Story: FURAHA's Success Story

    FURAHA Jean Marie, is a 56 years old disability activist person with deaf-Blindness come from a family of seven children (four sisters and three boys) with the total number of seven children, He was born in Burundi (Bujumbura) and came to Rwanda in 1995.

    He has a general secondary level of education and he is the only Deaf person in the family. During the communication they developed home communication signs. in 2015 he started to lose sight and become totally deaf-Blind .in 2012 her mother died and stay with one parent (father) the movement of Deaf-Blindness in Rwanda started in 20211 with the support of My rights and in 2020 Disability came to support in Advocacy activities, during the beginning Deaf-blindness was the project implemented by Rwanda Union of the blind through the management team.

    Jean Marie Furaha was one of the members supported by the project .by the end of November 2018; he was elected by the first General Assembly to be the First Chair Person of the Rwanda Organization of Persons with Deafblindness (ROPDB). It was a difficult time when challenges were abundant to them including communication issues among members of the organization community members, partners, and persons with Deaf-Blindness themselves and no one knew how to deal with issues of persons with Deaf-Blindness.

    He started to mobilize funds to train members on tactile sign language as means of communication to build a strong advocacy team. Tactile booklets have been developed, signs have been taught, and articles on tactile sign language have been developed. FURAHA Jean Marie is a strong and capable Leader who originally used sign language in communication but applied a lot of vigor when he learned some tactile signs to Advocate for the rights of Persons with Deaf-Blindness in Rwanda.

    He has participated in Workshops Organized by Humanity and Inclusion on leadership ,training of tactile sign language interpreters and some family members, he has been participated in different meetings and conferences organized by ROPDBs local and international partners aiming to joint advocacy.

    Under his Leadership, the ROPDB got the staff (Executive Director, project officer, accountant, and cleaner) and the Legal personality to from Rwanda Governance Board(RGB), the organization signed the MoU with friend of handicap and National commission of Human Rights , the organization becomes independent organization from Rwanda Union of the blind, identification of statistics of persons with Deaf-blindness have been done, members and committees members have been trained on leadership and advocacy, he offered the TV talks show to increase the level of awareness on Deaf-Blindness, in 2021 he got the training of nine months on braille at Masaka Resource Center for the Blind ,provision of 27 goats to the poor families of persons with Deaf-blindness in Rusizi District in May 2022 he participates in the first Africa conference on Deaf-Blindness held in Kenya, October 2022 he participated in the General assembly of the world federation of the Deaf-Blin and the African federation of the Deaf-blind.

    He ended his mandate by electing the new organizational leadership where he was elected as the Advisor on the board.

3rd Story: MUKABARANGA Story of Change

Persons with Deaf-Blindness in Rwanda face many difficulties/Challenges compared to others with or without disabilities unrecognised Deaf-Blindness as a distinct disability category, barriers in communication, lack of educational services, Extreme poverty, stigma, lower level of awareness of government officials on Deaf-Blindness, lack of Health services, barriers in the environments, Lack of employment opportinuiteie some had additional physical and learning disabilities (usually some level of autism), there were some cases of self-harming, Community understanding, attitudes were equally poor, regarding them with pity and to be kept out of sight, Interestingly there are a large number of families within which there is a family trait towards persons with Deafblindness such as Usher Syndrome.

In general, the families of people with Deafblindness are not very supportive, resulting in extreme loneliness for deafblind children. The above Witnessed/Testify by old Girls with Deaf-Blindness with 51 years old Born in Huye District southern province, currently she is living in MUHANGA District Southern Province named MUKABARANGA Mariana, who is a member of the procurement committee in Rwanda Organization of Persons with Deaf-Blindness. She is the first Born In a family of 8 children where. Currently, they are 6 children without a parent because their parents died, in those children, there are 3 boys and 3 girls, of those three boys one is Deaf-Blind called MUTUYIMANA Martin. They live in a single-family house left by their parents together with the family of their Brother called RAZARO Camarade.

MUKABARANGA Mariana was Born Deaf-ness, and she studied in a school for people with disabilities named Gatagara, after leaving primary six she went to study technical, and vocational Training in tailoring, which she completed with a certificate in the same school, the Year 2008 caregivers found that she had HIV Positive and by the Year 2010 she started losing the sights where she started bumping on objects in the ways during the day time and she was not able to move alone without the help of a guide.

Mariana is the one, who raised her siblings from their childhood because she was the firstborn in the family, she is able to do the home activities she learned when she was Deaf, and communicate with the family members at home.

After being involved in the Project of ROPDB supported by My Rights, she said that she got training on tactile sign language and how to communicate with the colleague, she was involved in ROPDB's activities, she met with different persons with and without Deaf-Blindness, invited in a different meeting organised by of organizations of Persons with Disabilities, she gave her interventions and contributes in different meetings, gained the knowledge on the rights of persons with Disabilities in Rwanda, got skills on mobility and orientation, during the meeting she attends they give her the transportation allowance the balance (remaining )of that allowance used to solve her issues like to buy the cosmetics lotion, satisfy herself with primary needs, live independently and be able to advocate herself on the existing issue.
Yes, this change affects the community in general, services providers in different domains and persons with disabilities including persons with Deaf-Blindness. The health centre and Health services providers in the local started to be aware of Deaf-Blindness, even though they don't know tactile sign language they use interpreters to service me. The level of awareness of the community increase in the life of people with disabilities. For Persons with Deaf-Blindness, It helps me to tell them what they can do, Train them on what they don't know about their life. When I offer my testimony change the community and families of Persons with deaf-Blindness and Persons with deaf-Blindness.
The Important change is that, because she is AIDs/HIV+, she got a briefing on how to take medicines regularly and if there are any issues she goes with a tactile sign language interpreter at the hospital, another important change is that she can communicate with the family members easily, able to share her life experience and life skills to other persons with Deaf-Blindness and increases awareness on the rights of persons with Deaf-Blindness on violence done by the community toward women with Deaf-Blindness.
She said before getting involved in the project (ROPDB) supported by My Right she couldn't communicate with any person using tactile sign language, she always stayed at home, she didn't know the information from other persons with deaf-Blindness and in community, no update the news, she couldn't know the news on the government plan for them, even to communicate with her colleague was so difficult, her life was in darkness because she was not independent in her choice.

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