[dramatic piano music]
The ableism is very challenging towards persons with disabilities.
My name is Ruth Iradukunda Fifi. I am a trainee in this organization of
Seeing Hands Rwanda.
This organization help us to be trained about massage therapy.
Massage therapy is very wide. They train us how to do it, but first of all, we have to
learn how human body anatomy is.
I think the reason why they call it Seeing Hands,
mostly in the society where we live, people with disabilities are discriminated or treated
as if they aren't able.
They are treated as if they need a favor.
Those who have been trained here before have shared me the information that blind persons
can do massage therapy. I liked it so much, and I decided to come and learn.
I said, 'Why not can I join them to acquire skills and give support to others in need?'
Except that you can make a living as a massage therapist, but it is a way to help others
feel better, relax, if they feel pain in their muscles and you can help them feel better.
I thought it was something I liked, so I decided to come and learn it so that I could help others.
No society will prove that a person with a disability can do anything unless we prove
them that we can because they immediately see us in the image of our disabilities.
What I can say is that massage is a good profession that helps me every day. Not only this but
I have preferred it as a talent of helping others.
If you can massage people, they come back home saying that
they feel better because you have helped them.
That's valuable.
In addition to that, the way we help customers helps, too, because it's not a services we offer for free.
It is a job that earns a living, so a person who wants to live without begging has to
become and do massage therapy professionally.
Although our eyes don't see, I know that our hands have the ability to be used not
just things to do, but also support us make a living with our hands.
My name is Uwitije Claudine. I work here in Seeing Hands Rwanda organization.
I am a massage therapist here as well as a trainer who trains massage therapy practically.
The trainees that I teach here, they like and understand it so very much.
My mindset was not like that people who think that a person with a disability is incapable,
and you immediately feel that you can't do anything.
I came here to prove that I can do something and doing what I thought I could do.
Rather, it's to challenge negative mindset towards blind persons that can stay at home
in the countryside, is only a homebody nothing else they can do.
To come here is to show that tomorrow and after tomorrow, if they see us working, they
will know that person with a disability is able!
They see how we are. They understand that a disabled person has to sit and feed him/her,
but for me, I don't see it like that.
I can pay for the house to live in, get food, and I can even pay for transportation when
I want to go somewhere.
[upbeat background music]
My name is Beth Gatonye.
I am the founder and legal representative of Seeing Hands Rwanda,
an organization that promotes the social and economic well-being of persons of visual impairment
through massage therapy training, ICT, and also we help them to transition to employment.
Visually impaired people are very good with touch.
You know, when you lose your sight, that perception is transferred mostly into your hands, because
they rely so much on touch.
So when you teach visually impaired persons how to do massage therapy, they give the best,
so one reason. Also another reason what motivated me
the rate of unemployment is very high among visually impaired people, even though they are educated.
Those who are educated it is very hard for them to find jobs.
Actually, not only for people with visual impairment but also anyone with a disability,
because the first thing that people see when they go looking for a job
is your disability. They don't go beyond that, employers do not go beyond that.
That is the very big challenge. Actually for them to find jobs is more challenging, and it is a
problem. This is a problem, and that is what we are trying to do here, to bridge the gap.
Not only to provide the training, but also help them transition from training to employment,
that is our main goal.
As you mentioned, most of them live below the poverty line, others have no relatives
you know?
Of course, they are really interested, and what we do, the money that we generate, you
know, after they finish training they start working.
The money that we generate is based to the therapists, and then part of it is distributed
among the trainees and the employees once a week.
So, this is the money that is used by them to sustain themselves, you know, here in Kigali,
to rent houses, to buy food.
First of all, we find clients for them. Because I have been a therapist in Rwanda for many
years, like ten years, so I use that opportunity.
Sometimes when people have events, you know, we go and do chair massages for them.
What we do is we connect them with clients, that's one.
Another thing we do, we search for jobs for them in hotels. We have some who are working
in hotels, others are working in health clubs, but mostly hotels.
Not many hotels are willing to employ them, and the actually the hotels that have employed
them are foreign, for foreigners, and then we also target sportsmen like cyclists, runners,
you know? We travel all over Rwanda to go and provide our services.
They get a massage from a visually impaired person, and they are so happy and they can
never go anywhere. What am I trying to tell you the services
that our visually impaired persons provide cannot be compared with any other services
in this country.
They are the best, and I would like you to try.