Learning from People with Disabilities in Ghana
During 2003, I had the privilege of working with the Resource Centre for Persons with Disabilities in Tamale, which is located in the North of Ghana, West Africa. My year in Ghana fulfilled the requirements for an anticipated degree in International Development Studies.
I found out about the local Resource Centre through the national office of ADD (Action on Disability and Development – a British NGO, check out their website!). From my first visit to the Centre, I was made to feel totally welcome; members acknowledged that I was the first white person with a disability they had ever met. They had so many questions, and so did I. My decision to do a full internship with the Centre was, therefore, not a difficult one. I was eager to become a part of a grassroots non-governmental organization run entirely by people with disabilities; I felt I needed to know more about the real situation of people with disabilities in Ghana, and I found a social space where I felt entirely comfortable.
The Resource Centre in Tamale is a place where people with a variety of disabilities, including physical, visual and hearing disabilities, come together to meet others with similar disabilities, to learn skills like sewing or weaving and to practice these skills. The Centre serves as a casual meeting place where people with disabilities feel comfortable to discuss their challenges, ideas, goals and accomplishments in life. There is a sense of shared learning and respect. There are also outreach projects, such as those involved in education and training.
Five groups are currently housed at the Centre: the Ghana society of the Physically Disabled, The Ghana National Association of the Deaf, the Association of Parents and Guardians of Children with Disabilities, the Association of Women with Disabilities and the Friends of the Mentally Retarded. While some of the terms commonly used to reference people with disabilities in Ghana are thought of as archaic in Canada, the ideas of people in Ghana are very progressive. There is so much we can learn from people with disabilities in developing countries. I did notice, however, a lack of awareness of any global disability movement, actually even a lack of awareness of disability as a universal phenomenon. Let me explain:
Many people were surprised to hear that there are Canadians who have disabilities. Some people were even more surprised when I said that we also face discrimination in Canada. Sometimes I would tell them about Tracy Latimer, a young girl with a disability who was murdered by her father because he felt she was suffering too much, and they would be shocked and saddened. My stories fostered a sense of solidarity as young people began to identify similarities in our situation for the first time. This needs to happen more often because, as people begin to recognize what they share with people with disabilities in other parts of the world, they are less likely to see their disability as a curse or a burden to their families and society. Sharing these stories also decreases the immensity of their struggle. Also, building international solidarity and networks can support Ghanaians to maintain their courage and dignity in demanding the respect and recognition they deserve from members of their community and government.
I also believe that we, in Canada and other developed countries, have a lot t gain from partnerships with disability groups in developing countries, because they have much to teach us not only about strength and resilience, but also about acknowledging disability as a social rather than a medical construct. In my experiences in Ghana, disability was less of a medical issue; there was less emphasis on ‘fixing’ the condition, especially in lower income areas. Consequently during my days at the Resource Centre, I saw more diverse ways of accommodating various disabilities: more walking and crawling styles than ever before in my life. It was fascinating, exciting and encouraging for me.
Through Partnerships with Ghanaians with disabilities, we may be able to better accept our bodies the way they are, instead of constantly trying to change them to fit a pre-determined stereotype of what we perceive as ‘normal’. This is diversity as a unifying aspect of humanity the world over.