Chrissy Matumba Becomes the First DeafBlind Student at Prestigious Malawian Secondary School

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Of the nearly 400 DeafBlind people living in Malawi, 250 are school-aged children, according to a survey by the Visual Hearing Impairment Membership Association and the Malawi Council for the Handicapped. These children are falling behind in education, as schools often lack the resources to provide learning accommodations for DeafBlind students. “There was a lack of assisted devices, fellow students dejected me when I sought help, and also a scarcity of teaching and learning materials,” says Chrissy Matumba, who recently became the first DeafBlind student admitted to Blantyre Secondary School, a prestigious public high school in Blantyre, Malawi. Duster Lucius, a 2022 DJP fellow who is DeafBlind, sits down with Matumba and Ernest Sokasoka, head of the special needs department at Blantyre Secondary, to discuss challenges facing DeafBlind students in schools.

Editing assistance by Desmond LaFave