In January 2007 I was asked by the internet magazine “Disability Now!” to write an article on the life of disabled people in Zimbabwe.

Bearing in mind that Mugabe is enjoying an extravaganza of a week to celebrate his 85th birthday while normal people suffer in the country, I thought that it would be right to highlight these people in that country.

Also, please remember that this was written two years ago… so how much worse must life be?

“I left Zimbabwe eight years ago, but having lived there for almost 40 years and grown up in a family with a strong medical background, I have a very good concept of what living with a disability in Zimbabwe entails. That I myself am now disabled is a coincidence.

Although I now live in the UK, I keep in close contact with many people in Zimbabwe, who, for obvious reasons, have to remain unnamed.

Family values in Africa as a whole, and Zimbabwe in particular, are high. But in the current political and economic climate in Zimbabwe, living with a disability is a huge encumbrance. The country does not have the disability network we see in the UK. Small organisations like St Giles, Jairos Jiri and RESCU have all but stopped operating, as costs are just too prohibitive.

Families with members who are disabled, whether physically or mentally, are largely left to handle the situation on their own. Some relatives see the birth of a child with a disability as a taboo that has brought a bad omen to the family. One must remember that African people are very spiritual. The subject of disability in Zimbabwe has largely been sacrosanct, and therefore remains unresolved.

Zimbabwean families are too busy just trying to get through each day to spend time looking after disabled people. Only the fit will survive.

The political and economic woes of the country no longer lend themselves to providing a society where people with disabilities can be afforded.

The British pound fetches a little more than Z$500 on the official exchange rate, whilst on the unofficial market it will fetch in excess of Z$50,000! The Poverty Datum Line - the amount of money that a five-member family requires to break even in any given month - is Z$1.4 million, but the average worker earns about Z$50,000 per month.

Disabled people in Zimbabwe routinely face exclusion from education, employment, cultural activities, festivals, sports and social events and are especially vulnerable to poverty, physical and sexual violence, lack of access to healthcare, emotional abuse and neglect. Only 33 per cent of children with disabilities in Zimbabwe have access to education, compared with over 90 per cent for the non-disabled populace.

When disabled people become too much for any family to cope with, the normal thing is to book that person into a local government hospital under a false name so that when death occurs, the government is obliged to pick up the funeral costs with a pauper’s burial. This is because the family are unable to foot the funeral costs.

An elderly black man, blind at birth, used to spend his days playing a home-made guitar and singing popular hymns - his voice loud and melodic, he was almost a landmark of First Street in Harare. His son would sit with him and “manage” the few coins that were donated by passers-by. But the municipal police chased them away and today they live at Hopley Farm, in a cold, crude hut manufactured for them by sympathetic neighbours.

He eats about one small meal every three days and cannot afford to buy a regular supply of milk or bread.

He no longer plays the guitar. He no longer sings. He spends his days sitting in silence. He quietly sits awaiting death. His life is cursed. He will not survive the winter this year. He welcomes death, if only for the freedom it will afford his son.

The disabled people of Zimbabwe - hidden, ignored and abhorred - nothing more, nothing less.”

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man