Mwanaidi

 It is 4pm and the sun is still extremely hot in the hills far beyond the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.  The earth is as dry as dust making it virtually impossible to grow any crops.   The rains are late here this year.   This is just one of the many challenges facing 58 year old Mwanaidi and the other eleven members of her family living in their two roomed house.

Mwanaidi is blind from glaucoma and has been for the last fifteen years.  80 per cent of adult blindness is avoidable through prevention or access to the right treatment and Mwanaidi’s blindness could have been prevented when she sought treatment for her failing sight nearly two decades ago.  “I noticed everything becoming darker.  I was seeing shadows and there was a discharge from my eyes.  But I just kept being referred here and there.  And then it was too late for anything to be done,” she says.

 Widowed a few years ago, she lives with her six daughters and five grandchildren and together the group of women get by through selling charcoal and baskets.  The fathers of Mwanaidi’s grandchildren have long since gone.  Mwanaidi recollects, “I felt great pain when my own husband died.  He was my eyes and helped me in so many ways.  But I think I am lucky to have such a big family around me now. ”

Ten months ago, CCBRT’s community programme team heard about Mwanaidi and the field workers sought her out.  Since then, she has received weekly training in mobility and orientation from CCBRT.   In that time, she has learned many skills she thought were lost to her along with her vision.  She is now able to make a walking cane from branches, has been shown to use it properly, and she can now fetch and carry water from the water hole a few kilometres away. 

“I was not happy,” Mwanaidi explains, “I wanted to do things for myself but I was unable to. I used to have to rely on the children to help me around but I didn’t like being a burden and feeling so dependent on them.  Now, I can get around by myself which is much better. I can visit my friend alone and I can also make baskets which I sell for 7,000 shillings (around $5) each.  I like being able to pay my way and contribute to the family.”

Mwanaidi has also been taught by CCBRT how to grow cassava and mchicha (spinach) to help feed the family. “It’s too dry right now to plant anything but I can tell by touch which are good seeds and which are not.  I can plant them and water the seeds by myself.  I can do everything a real farmer can do.”