7/26/03 – Port Shepstone, KZN, South Africa.

A Little Less Ignorant 
by Yunus Peer – Director, Teachers Without Borders – South Africa

Two months before June 2002, Mr. Sam Tanimoto, personal friend, retired Honolulu businessman, WW II veteran (US Army), and board member of the Lanakila Health and Rehabilitation Center suggested that TWB do something to connect disabled people in communities in Hawaii and South Africa.

Sam arranged a meeting for me with then-CEO of LHR, (Honolulu) Laura Colbert. We toured the facility, met with many of the resident employees, and at the end of the hour, I was a little less ignorant of many things in the world of the disabled.

In July 2002,Ý Pauline Duncan (TWB – SA administrator) and I attended a meeting of the Zamokuhle Disabled People’s Organisation (ZDPO) in a church hall in Murchison, a village some miles outside of Port Shepstone, South Africa. There are approximately 550 members in the 11 branches of ZDPO and it serves the poor, the neglected, the  illiterate, all disabled.

Philip Gamede is president of ZDPO , a 30-something wheelchair-bound man, charismatic, eloquent, and with awe-inspiring determination.

We left them a boxful of office supplies and clothes donated by communities in Hawaii. They sent me off with a bunch of letters (most were dictated to a few scribes) for residents of Lanakila in Hawaii. They openly expressed doubts about ever hearing back from Hawaii. Most people in this area have never received letters from anyone, anywhere.

Lo and behold! January 2003 – through the efforts of Laura Colbert  (LHR, Hon.), the disabled people of Murchison and Gamalakhe village received a package from Hawaii – on the exact opposite side of the world! In it were letters and a scrapbook of pictures and Christmas greetings from folks at Lanakila. It is difficult to translate or even express the joy and gratitude felt by people here in Gamalakhe.

The ZDPO meetings are conducted in a little 8′ x 8′ stall in a complex called the Gamalakhe Trader’s Village. Disabled people are employed to repair shoes, make leather belts, and repair clothing in this one tiny shop. The space is barely large enough to accommodate 2 wheelchairs, but they manage. On the wall behind the little desk – stretching across most of the wall – are the pages of the scrapbook from Hawaii – for everyone and anyone who visits the cobbler’s stall – they proudly announce – “these are our friends from Hawaii, USA!”

Our TWB team met with 15 members of ZDPO in that little stall on Monday morning, July 20th, 2003. President Philip Gamede was late because his ride to the “office” did not show up. Philip sent word that he was on his way – the man wheeled himself a kilometer down the road, and up a few hills to get to us. We would have been glad to pick him up had we known – but Philip wouldn’t have wanted us to go through the trouble. Jim Metz, my brother Gora, my mother Ameena and I sat in on the meeting while Oz Osborne videotaped the occasion. Philip spoke of the challenges faced by disabled people, especially in the rural areas. His organization has minimal resources to do much of anything except advocate for its members. They rely on the government (which is swamped and overwhelmed to begin with) and on the kindness of strangers – of which there is little. Philip explained how every bit of information, from records, to minutes of meetings, to communication with other organizations, all had to be hand-written, since they do not own a typewriter or computer. They do not have any organized transportation and no public vehicles are equipped for the disabled. He talked about their fight to educate the public about disabled people who are not seeking sympathy, but seeking jobs and legal rights accorded to them under the law. They face many challenges, but as I said, Philip’s determination is truly awe-inspiring.

We all left the meeting with a little less ignorance about the world of the disabled in village communities in South Africa.

July 24th. 2003. TWB-SA had its last meeting in South Africa before the teaching team departed for the US. We have had an incredible experience together.  Our team worked with 75 teachers (with an impact on close to 30,000 students) and 900 senior students preparing to take their 12th grade exams, success at which grants them passage into college. We have traveled almost 6000 km through 3 provinces, done 4 workshops with teachers and students, spent time with rural communities, handed over clothing, school supplies and equipment to very grateful people in the rural villages who are trying desperately to educate their children so that they may join the developed world.

Jim Metz and Oz Osborne (TWB-SA 2003) decided at that last meeting that they will pool their resources and donate a Dell PC Laptop and an HP Deskjet printer to Zamokuhle Disabled People’s Organisation so that they may begin to electronically record and store all communication and data relating to the business of the disabled in this region.

I called Philip Gamede yesterday and said that Pauline and I will be visiting him on Monday (July 28th) to hand over this gift and it is to be understood that this gift from TWB (Jim and Oz) shall be used by and remain the property of Zamokuhle Disabled People’s Organization, Gamalakhe, South Africa.

Philip asked: “Am I dreaming?”

After the experience of these past six weeks, I was wondering if I was dreaming too.