Entering one of the rooms of the multi-storied ‘Masaka Resource Center for the Blind’ building, we met a young man who happens to be a volunteer at the centre. Isaac Ndayishimiye has been volunteering at the resource centre located in Kicukiro District, specialising in sign language, for almost a year now, but he has been in practice for five years. The 25-year old narrates why he chose this career and its implications. “After completing secondary studies, I could not afford to move on to university, so I decided to start a six-month course in sign language at Rwanda national union of the deaf (RNUD),” he says. He says that the idea to do this was a result of the difficult communication between hearing impaired people and others that he’d noticed, and so decided to learn the language so that he could be part of the solution and help people with hearing disabilities in their day-to-day activities. “Due to poor communication channels, people living with disabilities do not feel free and open in society, they do not participate in common activities like Umuganda or even elections and many of them have lost hope in the future,” he says. They often encounter communication barriers, hence losing ways of expressing themselves, he adds, noting that he chose to join the centre to help them acquire different skills that they can use to earn a living. “I was not forced to learn sign language, it’s because of the passion that I had, and it’s still strong, to connect deaf people to others and make their lives better,” he says. He adds that when there is a meeting, or any other function, he goes in to help. “I wish that the government can adopt a policy to have a sign language interpreter in every office so that it gets easier for people with hearing or speech disabilities to get services like any other citizen, because they are among the people who struggle a lot to communicate when in need of a service. “I also encourage every willing person to learn sign language to create an inclusive society for all,” adding that during campaigns, the centre requests the government to make sign language one of Rwanda’s well-known languages. Ndayishimiye hopes to create more awareness on this, especially through platforms like the International Day of Sign Languages marked September 23 annually across the world along with International Week of the Deaf. The choice of 23 September is the same date that the World Federation of the Deaf was established in 1951.
