What is it like to leave home when you have restrictive growth disorder and live in a world geared towards people much taller than you?

Esther Mukampogazi says she has known nothing but ridicule and contempt all her life. As a young woman who was born with dwarfism — a condition of short stature — she has endured the agony of mocking stares from strangers.

When she was a child, she used to suppress the torment, pretending that nothing was happening and that it would all be alright someday.

She wondered why she was being tormented for something she had no control over.

But her family was her shelter, they loved and cared for her. And they didn’t stare because she was their family and they saw her as normal.

Her experience at school was no different from that with strangers.

"Whereas I had to walk for a long distance to school, what I dreaded most was the constant encounter with people who had the urge to surround me, mocking me for my different stature, and this also happened with my colleagues at school. Because of this, I always reached class late and had to explain myself to the teacher, so I would often find myself looking for excuses because there was no way I would reveal what had happened,” she recalls.

There were even more pressing obstacles at school for her, such as sitting on desks that were a bit higher than her, writing answers on the chalk board like the others did because it was too high, among others. This was all painful for her.

When she was in primary five, it became too much for her and she dropped out of school.

"I felt like there was nothing I was gaining. Students were always running after me, everyone staring at me, people on the road making funny observations — drivers, cyclists, calling me names, basically it was too much. I kept this all in for some time but it had become crushing,” she says.

Coming to terms with reality

She was out of school for almost a year when her uncle confronted her and counselled her to not give up on life.

"He wouldn’t take any excuses and offered to take care of anything I needed to go back to school. He encouraged me to accept who I was and focus on making something out of my life. I finally went back to school,” the now 30-year-old narrates.

And though the narrative of the constant mockeries didn’t stop, Mukampogazi changed her attitude towards it all.

"I found myself resorting to things like waiting for my other classmates to go home, so that I would go peacefully, or I would walk out of the classroom earlier than everyone else. This time, I was patient and resilient enough to overcome it. Finally I completed my primary education.”

This self-acceptance made life easier and when she joined high school, she was confident enough to be part of the students’ leaders body at her school ASPEC-Kayenzi, in Kamonyi, Southern Province.

From there, she joined university where she graduated in the field of journalism at the University of Rwanda.

Creating a legacy through advocacy

Going forward, she wants to inspire other women and be able to live by the motto that ‘disability is not inability’.

Mukampogazi says she was not deterred by all these issues because she knew what she wanted to achieve.

"I want to succeed using my ability and not be a burden to anyone. Today, even though people still act weird when I pass by them, I no longer get uncomfortable. This is because I am proud of who I am, besides, I have seen it all so there is really nothing new,” she says.

Mukampogazi now works as a field officer at Rwanda Union of Little People, where she trains and advocates for little people in the community.

She says she is fortunate to be part of this organisation for it has exposed her to a platform where she can advocate for people living with disabilities like herself.

"We advocate for them in places of work and any other area they face challenges. We also try to change society’s perception of people living with disabilities by disregarding the mind-set that these people cannot achieve greatly.”

Mukampogazi admits that she at times wishes to be like the rest.

"My siblings who have no disabilities now have families and I am the only one who is not married. Sometimes I feel like it is partly due to the fact that I was born like this.”

But nonetheless, she expresses gratitude to God for creating her that way, reasoning that it is possible that she would not be where she is now if she was born like the rest.

"I encourage people living with disabilities to be resilient, especially when they face challenges. They should not feel small about it, I also urge society to be accommodative.”

She also calls onto policymakers to make certain services accessible, for example at banks and hospitals by adjusting infrastructure that favours all people.

"Another challenge is that many ‘little people’ are illiterate. So this makes them vulnerable as most drop out of school. They need advocacy because not everyone will be lucky to have an uncle who will encourage them to go back school,” she says.

She wants to inspire other women to believe that disability is not inability.

The narrative of the constant mockeries didn’t stop Mukampogazi from chasing her dream