Tuulikki Nekundi – VSO partner – ELCIN rehabilitation centre – Namibia
Tuulikki Nekundi is a powerful force in Namibia’s disability movement. Blind herself, she brings a unique perspective to the organisation she leads and the government departments she advises. For the past 17 years she has led Elcin, an organisation that undertakes training, awareness raising and advocacy work on behalf of people with disabilities in northern Namibia. Here she talks about the social attitudes that hinder disabled people’s involvement in society and how Elcin in tackling these challenges.
Background
Social attitude is a condition where a person with a disability cannot live freely. By social attitude I mean, when we live in the situation when we are segregated, when people are just looking to your disability rather than looking to your ability.
Just because you are affected by a disability it does not mean your whole body, your whole soul is affected, you still have a remaining ability you can use, but what you need is stimulation, but if there is no stimulation that person could live isolated in the situation where they are. This problem exists at home and in the community. It is the situation whereby a person is living in a life that is limited.
Few qualified disabled people
But there are not enough qualified disabled people in Namibia - if people with disabilities were having a better education they would know how to tackle the social attitude that is our great enemy. When I am discriminated against I open my mind, I open my mind to the need of the person who needs to be educated about how to change their behaviour to others.
Elcin is working to make communities understand that we need to live together, we need equal rights, we are part of society, and we do not need to be excluded. Elcin was founded in 1990, the year of Namibian independence, to sensitise the population about issues of disability. We organise workshops for community members - like teachers, health personnel and parents of children with disabilities - and explore the causes of disabilities, how to prevent disabilities and challenge social attitudes that impact people with disabilities. We are also the only organisation producing Braille resources that can be used in schools.
Training Namibian volunteers
Our biggest area though is training the Namibian volunteers who are central to the Ministry of Health’s community based rehabilitation programme. Community based rehabilitation is a crucial issue to Namibia because the majority of the population is living in rural areas, not within reach of public services and in an environment where negative attitudes prevail.
Using community based rehabilitation, Namibian volunteers tackle health and attitudinal issues by offering referrals to public services, advice on caring for people with a disability, and raising awareness of disability issues in the community. Elcin has trained over 300 volunteers who are now working within communities throughout northern Namibia.
Greater awareness
I am proud of what Elcin has done. Many people are now aware of disability issues and people with disabilities know how to express their needs, they know where to go to seek help, they know also how to travel by themselves. But rehabilitation cannot really end, it is a continual process because whatever happens in development we always need to see how to accommodate disabled people’s needs.
VSO volunteer and occupational therapist Patricia Flynn has been supporting Elcin by training Namibian volunteers with basic care giving skills. Through financial support from VSO Namibia’s national volunteering programme Elcin has also formed a organisation that enables the Namibian volunteers to come together to share learning and experiences and to speak with a common voice on issues that affect them and their work in the community. The organisation is called Twiizuleni which mean ‘let’s rehabilitate ourselves’