[Music]
when I started working with women living
with disabilities there were so many
questions people wanted to know if I had
a relative that lived with a disability
the answer then was no but now the
answer is yes how
because I know disability I know what it
is to watch others run and you cannot
run I know what it is to watch others
fly and you can’t fly because you have
been to winged or you don’t have wings
or your wings are broken I also know
what it is to what others dance you
can’t dance I know what it is to have a
song in your heart and you can’t sing
because you have a speech impairment I
know what it is to start the race the
100 meters – you watch others they get
to the finish line they come back they
pick up the trophy they go home they
celebrate how are you still squatted and
waiting for the gun to go off you’re
still doing on your marks
I dunno disability I know what it is to
watch the beauty of your character the
strength and the excellence that
characterizes everything that you do
they all pale into insignificance just
because of a disability I know what it
is to be discriminated against I know
what it is to live with a stigma stigma
actually is a Greek word which means
slave and when you’re a slave you have
no voice
you have no right whatsoever how now
every African parent you lose your name
if you have a child on your childhood
Stoney you become a Matunuck
or Papa Tony we have mothers in the
house we can identify with that to
happen Iike you have you become a
manicure Papa Nica now I come from a
family where my parents had nine
children and I was the ninth the very
last
though my name is URI but I was
nicknamed baby that was a baby of the
family at some point I decided I needed
a new name but that didn’t just happen
by that time I had just gone through the
name change I had heard a song and that
song was psyckadeli by Sonja D
Shama me Leakey us shaman psyckadeli you
and I thought psyckadeli was such a nice
name I decided to adopt the name so I
went from door to door house to house in
able to enable I told all the uncles my
friends their parents that I didn’t want
to be called baby anymore that I wanted
to be called psyckadeli now my mother
had already gone through 8 name changes
so she was already mama baby so she
didn’t know what happened when she was
going about her duties in the
neighborhood and they were calling her
mama psyckadeli and she wanted and she
was wondering what’s going on and they
said baby had come to warn us that she
didn’t want to be called baby anymore
she wanted to be called psyckadeli
ladies and gentlemen that sucka daddy on
the screen now I decided to go back to
the story so that you can see that this
girl was one bold brave audacious she
was precocious very precocious and then
she was also proactive she took a
decision and she decided to do something
about it she was a girl that was going
somewhere she was a girl that knew who
she was and who she is and nobody was
going to tell her who she wasn’t fast
forward seventeen now when you turn 17
all over the world you’re getting ready
to get you know to go to university oh
you’re just rounding up high school here
in my country we have a general entrance
examination which is called jam you to
it once you get lucky you enter you do
it a second time you get lucky you
entered a third time sometimes the
frustration is already setting in
you enter now damn comes around once a
year now when you do jump one two three
four five six seven eight nine ten
something has happened you have one
grown up without a university degree
secondly when you grow up with a
university degree in the society I live
in you are like a girl that has been
raped not until recent times where
there’s been so much advocacy against
rape when a girl is raped it’s her fault
her skirt was too short and her dress
was too tight and I started walking down
the road and she was swinging her hips
from side to side so she had it coming
so here I am Here I am
I’ve just grown up I was 25 I didn’t
have a university degree on and I was
very pretty and the way I talk did not
help matters my father was not a rich
man by the stretch of anybody’s
imagination but he was rich in wisdom by
8 I have read so many books there was so
many book support educational books he
was building bridges
he bought books in the curriculum and
then he bought general interest books so
the way books all over the place
and so by the time I was entering
secondary school of course I could
express myself one or two notches higher
than the people I interacted with and I
had romanced the dictionary and I could
pick out words that I will use to
decorate my classmates when they stepped
on my tiny toes so you can imagine here
I was and they were coming and they were
going past now if that was not watching
people fly when you couldn’t fly tell me
what is if that was not watching people
dance when you couldn’t dance tell me
what is now that was such a disability
that I was tagged the girl I did go to
school though because but by the time I
went to school I was married but as at
that time that was a great disability
because I was tagged the
fine girl that knew nothing the girl
that’s worked so much English that
didn’t have anything in her head now if
I was a boy that kept on going every
year oh sorry your name did not come out
on this list
it wasn’t my school sir that I retook on
it was not my a level that I retook it
was done and it was a direct entry
oh sorry you’re not from the state
you’re not an Indian
oh wait for the next list or wait for
the next batch because I was doing okay
let me to jump let me do this let me do
that everybody I said you see that boy
the boy is very determined the boy is
focused the boy is smart the boy is
intelligent that boy is strong but I was
a girl she’s fully men up and down
that’s why she’s not in school she’s
following all the Legos man and in fact
it so affected me that I couldn’t even
taste properly because I knew I had an
issue there is a critical construct in
our psyche in our society that needs to
be deconstructed there is a place for
education there is a place for ability
there is a place for certificate there
is a place for talent there is a place
for all those things and we need to
learn to build bridges if we need to
develop as an optimum society because
when you elevate certificate we are
highly certificated country when you
elevate certificate above every other
thing of course we will have water pad
now so many people in highest places of
authority being immersed in one
certificate scandal or the other there
is a place for ability with all the
great things that I was doing but I
didn’t get any recognition but then I
was writing and then people would tell
me would you stop talking the way you
talk will it stop write carry yourself
the way you carry yourself and I
remember them telling them perhaps if
you can order a book on how to write how
to talk and how to carry yourself
without a university
then I will read it and I will
understand and I’ll totally deconstruct
my childhood and maybe your book may
make the New York Times bestseller list
but one standing here today is to tell
you that I’m no different
I was not different from the woman that
is sitting down here sitting on a
wheelchair or the one that is watching
me and she has to look at another person
to understand what I’m saying I had a
picture I wanted to show a picture and I
don’t know it’s not showing it’s not
going now when I talk about disability I
have just let you know about my
educational disability as it were but
disability comes any form of disability
is the same because I remember talking
about this with my friend a friend of
mine from Kenya she said Orry I’ve been
married for several years that means I
have and I don’t have ish and I don’t
have any child that means I have a
maternal disability and the other one
said well I’m about 45 and over and I’m
not married so that’s a marital
disability the truth about disability is
it comes with the same thing
stigmatization oh look at her she’s not
married she’s old it comes with the same
thing look at her she’s been married 20
years and no child it comes with the
same thing all over the world now
talking about disability I am working
with women living with physical
disability because I can identify with
what they are going through now the
United Nations statistics tell us that
15% of the population of the world live
with disability and that’s about 1
billion people and that makes them the
largest minority group in the world and
80 percent of that group leaving for our
countries now 65 percent of that group
are women now all over the world has
been so much race and so much frenzy in
different corners to bridge the gender
gap so there’s women education fund
women and
fund financing women health development
women’s sponsorship and I just keep
waiting this is 11 years after the
United Nations launched believe no woman
behind and I’m still waiting to hear
what about women living with
disabilities health program what about
women living with Disabilities Education
Fund what about women living with
disabilities Business Development Fund I
just keep hitting to here now I wanted
to talk about one of the women or two of
the women that are here and I guess the
prompter is not getting it when I met
Yeller a man I was shocked
you see how on the screen she is a five
times tennis champion two times gold
medalist she is also a trained
manicurist
she lives with multiple sclerosis she’s
on wheelchair give her a round of
applause she is a woman living with a
disability
push it is certainly not a liability and
the next person is Susan Susan has a
diploma in computer science she has a
degree in guidance and counseling and
she has a post graduate diploma and of
course I didn’t know existed until I met
her not until recent times Susan was a
volunteer in a family planning clinic
where she helped couples to understand
the benefits of family planning and
charge spacing Susan at the point was
also the best science teacher in her
school now there are so many of them
women living with a disability or women
living with disabilities they are not
any or they are not economic liabilities
so it is time for us to begin to build
the next bridge which is the bridge of
empathy empathy is sympathy in action we
need to build the bridges of empathy
into that community now people ask me
why are you trying to give back to the
society and I laugh I said meet worry
I don’t have money and I don’t give back
to society because if you think about it
deeply society gives nothing society
takes and takes and just keeps taking
and when you cannot give to the society
society expels you from its nether
region you can identify with that
society also sets a benchmark and then
he sets parameters and when you do not
meet that those two parameters or
benchmarks you become what invisible and
if you’re a woman that’s a triple
jeopardy an expression I learned from
one of my women living with disability
Phebe sitting here today so I cannot
give back to society but there’s
something I can do and there’s something
we can all do we can partner with
humanity because we are humans
and we can build that bridge into the
society we cannot let we make up Society
we cannot let society eat up our
humanity no we can’t so we have to build
the bridges into the society now the
report or the statistics that tell us
that 15 percent of the world live with
physical disability the truth of the
matter is if you cannot see the ability
in someone that in itself is a
disability also maybe just 85 percent of
the world is living in some kind of
psychological disability think about it
before I go today I would like each and
every one of us to realize that it is
time for us to begin to equitably justly
and fairly assess people based on their
ability not on their disability because
if you ask me now why do I work with
women living with disability for me
worry it is very personal
thank you
when I started working with women living
with disabilities there were so many
questions people wanted to know if I had
a relative that lived with a disability
the answer then was no but now the
answer is yes how
because I know disability I know what it
is to watch others run and you cannot
run I know what it is to watch others
fly and you can’t fly because you have
been to winged or you don’t have wings
or your wings are broken I also know
what it is to what others dance you
can’t dance I know what it is to have a
song in your heart and you can’t sing
because you have a speech impairment I
know what it is to start the race the
100 meters – you watch others they get
to the finish line they come back they
pick up the trophy they go home they
celebrate how are you still squatted and
waiting for the gun to go off you’re
still doing on your marks
I dunno disability I know what it is to
watch the beauty of your character the
strength and the excellence that
characterizes everything that you do
they all pale into insignificance just
because of a disability I know what it
is to be discriminated against I know
what it is to live with a stigma stigma
actually is a Greek word which means
slave and when you’re a slave you have
no voice
you have no right whatsoever how now
every African parent you lose your name
if you have a child on your childhood
Stoney you become a Matunuck
or Papa Tony we have mothers in the
house we can identify with that to
happen Iike you have you become a
manicure Papa Nica now I come from a
family where my parents had nine
children and I was the ninth the very
last
though my name is URI but I was
nicknamed baby that was a baby of the
family at some point I decided I needed
a new name but that didn’t just happen
by that time I had just gone through the
name change I had heard a song and that
song was psyckadeli by Sonja D
Shama me Leakey us shaman psyckadeli you
and I thought psyckadeli was such a nice
name I decided to adopt the name so I
went from door to door house to house in
able to enable I told all the uncles my
friends their parents that I didn’t want
to be called baby anymore that I wanted
to be called psyckadeli now my mother
had already gone through 8 name changes
so she was already mama baby so she
didn’t know what happened when she was
going about her duties in the
neighborhood and they were calling her
mama psyckadeli and she wanted and she
was wondering what’s going on and they
said baby had come to warn us that she
didn’t want to be called baby anymore
she wanted to be called psyckadeli
ladies and gentlemen that sucka daddy on
the screen now I decided to go back to
the story so that you can see that this
girl was one bold brave audacious she
was precocious very precocious and then
she was also proactive she took a
decision and she decided to do something
about it she was a girl that was going
somewhere she was a girl that knew who
she was and who she is and nobody was
going to tell her who she wasn’t fast
forward seventeen now when you turn 17
all over the world you’re getting ready
to get you know to go to university oh
you’re just rounding up high school here
in my country we have a general entrance
examination which is called jam you to
it once you get lucky you enter you do
it a second time you get lucky you
entered a third time sometimes the
frustration is already setting in
you enter now damn comes around once a
year now when you do jump one two three
four five six seven eight nine ten
something has happened you have one
grown up without a university degree
secondly when you grow up with a
university degree in the society I live
in you are like a girl that has been
raped not until recent times where
there’s been so much advocacy against
rape when a girl is raped it’s her fault
her skirt was too short and her dress
was too tight and I started walking down
the road and she was swinging her hips
from side to side so she had it coming
so here I am Here I am
I’ve just grown up I was 25 I didn’t
have a university degree on and I was
very pretty and the way I talk did not
help matters my father was not a rich
man by the stretch of anybody’s
imagination but he was rich in wisdom by
8 I have read so many books there was so
many book support educational books he
was building bridges
he bought books in the curriculum and
then he bought general interest books so
the way books all over the place
and so by the time I was entering
secondary school of course I could
express myself one or two notches higher
than the people I interacted with and I
had romanced the dictionary and I could
pick out words that I will use to
decorate my classmates when they stepped
on my tiny toes so you can imagine here
I was and they were coming and they were
going past now if that was not watching
people fly when you couldn’t fly tell me
what is if that was not watching people
dance when you couldn’t dance tell me
what is now that was such a disability
that I was tagged the girl I did go to
school though because but by the time I
went to school I was married but as at
that time that was a great disability
because I was tagged the
fine girl that knew nothing the girl
that’s worked so much English that
didn’t have anything in her head now if
I was a boy that kept on going every
year oh sorry your name did not come out
on this list
it wasn’t my school sir that I retook on
it was not my a level that I retook it
was done and it was a direct entry
oh sorry you’re not from the state
you’re not an Indian
oh wait for the next list or wait for
the next batch because I was doing okay
let me to jump let me do this let me do
that everybody I said you see that boy
the boy is very determined the boy is
focused the boy is smart the boy is
intelligent that boy is strong but I was
a girl she’s fully men up and down
that’s why she’s not in school she’s
following all the Legos man and in fact
it so affected me that I couldn’t even
taste properly because I knew I had an
issue there is a critical construct in
our psyche in our society that needs to
be deconstructed there is a place for
education there is a place for ability
there is a place for certificate there
is a place for talent there is a place
for all those things and we need to
learn to build bridges if we need to
develop as an optimum society because
when you elevate certificate we are
highly certificated country when you
elevate certificate above every other
thing of course we will have water pad
now so many people in highest places of
authority being immersed in one
certificate scandal or the other there
is a place for ability with all the
great things that I was doing but I
didn’t get any recognition but then I
was writing and then people would tell
me would you stop talking the way you
talk will it stop write carry yourself
the way you carry yourself and I
remember them telling them perhaps if
you can order a book on how to write how
to talk and how to carry yourself
without a university
then I will read it and I will
understand and I’ll totally deconstruct
my childhood and maybe your book may
make the New York Times bestseller list
but one standing here today is to tell
you that I’m no different
I was not different from the woman that
is sitting down here sitting on a
wheelchair or the one that is watching
me and she has to look at another person
to understand what I’m saying I had a
picture I wanted to show a picture and I
don’t know it’s not showing it’s not
going now when I talk about disability I
have just let you know about my
educational disability as it were but
disability comes any form of disability
is the same because I remember talking
about this with my friend a friend of
mine from Kenya she said Orry I’ve been
married for several years that means I
have and I don’t have ish and I don’t
have any child that means I have a
maternal disability and the other one
said well I’m about 45 and over and I’m
not married so that’s a marital
disability the truth about disability is
it comes with the same thing
stigmatization oh look at her she’s not
married she’s old it comes with the same
thing look at her she’s been married 20
years and no child it comes with the
same thing all over the world now
talking about disability I am working
with women living with physical
disability because I can identify with
what they are going through now the
United Nations statistics tell us that
15% of the population of the world live
with disability and that’s about 1
billion people and that makes them the
largest minority group in the world and
80 percent of that group leaving for our
countries now 65 percent of that group
are women now all over the world has
been so much race and so much frenzy in
different corners to bridge the gender
gap so there’s women education fund
women and
fund financing women health development
women’s sponsorship and I just keep
waiting this is 11 years after the
United Nations launched believe no woman
behind and I’m still waiting to hear
what about women living with
disabilities health program what about
women living with Disabilities Education
Fund what about women living with
disabilities Business Development Fund I
just keep hitting to here now I wanted
to talk about one of the women or two of
the women that are here and I guess the
prompter is not getting it when I met
Yeller a man I was shocked
you see how on the screen she is a five
times tennis champion two times gold
medalist she is also a trained
manicurist
she lives with multiple sclerosis she’s
on wheelchair give her a round of
applause she is a woman living with a
disability
push it is certainly not a liability and
the next person is Susan Susan has a
diploma in computer science she has a
degree in guidance and counseling and
she has a post graduate diploma and of
course I didn’t know existed until I met
her not until recent times Susan was a
volunteer in a family planning clinic
where she helped couples to understand
the benefits of family planning and
charge spacing Susan at the point was
also the best science teacher in her
school now there are so many of them
women living with a disability or women
living with disabilities they are not
any or they are not economic liabilities
so it is time for us to begin to build
the next bridge which is the bridge of
empathy empathy is sympathy in action we
need to build the bridges of empathy
into that community now people ask me
why are you trying to give back to the
society and I laugh I said meet worry
I don’t have money and I don’t give back
to society because if you think about it
deeply society gives nothing society
takes and takes and just keeps taking
and when you cannot give to the society
society expels you from its nether
region you can identify with that
society also sets a benchmark and then
he sets parameters and when you do not
meet that those two parameters or
benchmarks you become what invisible and
if you’re a woman that’s a triple
jeopardy an expression I learned from
one of my women living with disability
Phebe sitting here today so I cannot
give back to society but there’s
something I can do and there’s something
we can all do we can partner with
humanity because we are humans
and we can build that bridge into the
society we cannot let we make up Society
we cannot let society eat up our
humanity no we can’t so we have to build
the bridges into the society now the
report or the statistics that tell us
that 15 percent of the world live with
physical disability the truth of the
matter is if you cannot see the ability
in someone that in itself is a
disability also maybe just 85 percent of
the world is living in some kind of
psychological disability think about it
before I go today I would like each and
every one of us to realize that it is
time for us to begin to equitably justly
and fairly assess people based on their
ability not on their disability because
if you ask me now why do I work with
women living with disability for me
worry it is very personal
thank you
Please follow and like us: