“I sometimes used to sit and cry but then feel determined at the same time to change my situation from what society perceives [about] people living with disability – that we’re not able to do anything in life. Some parents [even] refer to their disabled children as ‘half pikin’ (half child),” Madi Sefoi tells our radio presenter Marian Tina Conteh.

In Sierra Leone, many people live with different forms of disabilities, but often girls in wheelchairs are seen begging from people passing by in cities around the country.

We met Madi on a production visit to the south of Sierra Leone for our radio programme Wae Gyal Pikin Timap (When a Girl Child Stands). Thousands of girls are out of school in Sierra Leone, so the show aims to turn up the volume on the barriers to education. Increasingly, we identify the issues for girls living with disabilities and give them the opportunity to tell their stories on air and discuss challenges.

We sometimes bring girls to our studio to present alongside our presenter, by acting as the presenter’s friend. We interviewed Madi as a co-host when we visited her province to record with our partner radio stations. She told us that growing up in Bo City (known as ‘Gari town’) wasn’t easy,

‘’I had to put up with the difficulties of going to a public school which was not disabled-friendly in terms of moving around the compound. I used to feel discouraged to be crawling among thousands of students.”

People living with disabilities faced lot of discrimination in their daily lives, she said. Often, families, communities, and society see them as a burden. Some people treat them with disrespect and sometimes mock, provoke, laugh, or call them names like ‘gbenkelenkie’ (bend foot), or believe they are a result of witchcraft or are a curse on their family.

“Transport to go to school and other places was always a nightmare for me because I had to be taken off my wheelchair and helped into it again. People look low at me and that makes me feel unhappy,” Madi continues.

She describes that she finished high school and took the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) but unfortunately did not achieve the requirements for university. She wanted to re-sit but could not afford the entry fees for the exams.

Determined for change

“I decided to start doing something to raise money to be able to take care of myself and save some to fulfill my dream of re-sitting and going to college or do something meaningful in life,” says Madi.

She started plaiting hair for her family and because she was creative with different hair styles, she quickly had friends, family and new customers coming to see her every day. Her reputation grew, she told us people started calling her ‘Madi Sefoi the Bluffay’ (for us this means a lady who is well presented and immaculate), quickly she started earning enough to start taking care of her immediate needs such as food and clothes, and eventually enough to save for her next step.

After hearing an IT course advertised on the radio, Madi left Bo and traveled to Freetown to complete the course. She continued to plait hair to support herself and enrolled for a customer care training course back in Bo City. “I learned how to attend to people and how to manage my time as well,” says Madi. “With all these training experiences, I continue with my passion of plaiting hair… earning some income that I’m using to take care of myself and my immediate family.”

“Disability is not inability”

On our show, Madi told her story. She said people living with disabilities need people to give them attention, support, and encouragement. People should include girls living with disabilities in opportunities that are available to others – in her words “…our disability is not inability. Girls living with disabilities are greatly in need of those opportunities”.

She went further during her Wae Gyal Pikin Timap interview and called on government to address the issues of people living with disabilities, especially girls, to create more opportunities that are accessible and disabled friendly.

Inviting girls like Madi onto the radio programme helps shine light on the issues girls are facing as part of our project called Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient (EAGER). We identify issues affecting girls who are out of school, including those living with disability, and give them the opportunity to discuss and tell their stories, and most importantly to share their creative solutions.

Meeting Madi was truly inspirational. She featured in an episode called ‘’Disability not holding girls back’’ and we know by inviting young co-hosts on the show it’s helping other girls. Last year, our research found listeners find the programme engaging and they like Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap because it features girls in relatable, real-life situations about issues relevant to their lives, as well as potential solutions. I believe it is how our programmes focus on inspiring and empowering girls which makes the difference.


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Mariama Sesay is a Senior Producer for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action, Sierra Leone

Learn more about the EAGER project here 
Read our new commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion here

This week sees the launch of . ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action joins disability and development specialists, and global leaders from 15 organisations coming together under one initiative. The goal is to ensure opportunities for people with disabilities and a future that’s disability inclusive. In Bangladesh, our journalism mentors Senjuti Masud and Bishawjit Das have been training journalists to improve how people with disabilities are portrayed in the media and tackle negative stereotyping and perceptions. Read their story…

“The way people with disabilities here are being portrayed in the media is from a lens of pity or sympathy,” Senjuti explains. “So, when employers are looking at them, they’re looking at them as a burden to the society, not good enough, not capable enough to contribute to the economy. This is what we want to challenge.

Through our training of media professionals, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action shows journalists that disability inclusion widens the scope of their story. It gives another dimension and it presents your subject in a more positive way.”

Senjuti and Bishawjit are training around 150 journalists from all different formats: television, radio, online and print. “They are senior journalists who’ve been working for a while. They know what they’re doing; we are trying to adjust their lens a little bit so that they have this fresh perception about telling the story from a different angle. So far, stories focus on a very pitiful situation and deplorable conditions of people with disability,” Senjuti continues.

Bishawjit explains what is involved in the training. “We bring the journalists together in a room with a group of people with disabilities, so they learn from each other’s experiences,” he says. “We ask the journalists to write an inclusive story… The interesting thing is: not only do the other journalists analyse it, but we ask the people with disabilities to give their feedback by asking: ‘How does it sound to you? Is it really dignified enough?’

Senjuti adds, “We want to show that people with disabilities are an asset and they deserve equal dignity. And when media professionals are presenting them as part of their stories, whatever they’re talking about in media, be it an issue of public interest, economy, growth, the current political situation, they need to be included everywhere. Their voices need to be heard everywhere.”

“We have trained 150 journalists so far and Bangladesh is a country of thousands of journalists. I am proud that ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action has been part of this new initiative and journalists who were part of it have appreciated this effort so much. I hope more journalists will be able to reach more people. This is just a beginning.”

Bishawjit comments that “Since the training, we’ve noticed some of the journalists are already writing positive stories including people with disabilities. If you analyse the pre-training and post-training news, you will see a huge difference.”

“We saw the language being changed,” Senjuti adds. “I think it’s an amazing change to achieve in such a short period of time.

“Now we are creating a Facebook group where the journalists can talk about stories, to push them to keep talking about people with disability in a more engaging and interactive way. And there’s a little element of competition of who’s the best at making a change to the coverage – we’re going to declare them as champions.”

As part of the mentoring, Bishawjit and Senjuti offer a refresher training session with the journalists a couple of months later, as Bishawjit puts it…

“It’s to see whether they have forgotten anything…I’ve said to them: ‘I want to see at least 50 quality stories that would change the perspective of the audience!’”

 

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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action is one of 15 partners working together on Inclusive Futures which is supported by Sightsavers and funded by UK Aid. Learn more at the new website here:

The original interviews above were posted by SightSavers here in June 2020, read the or as he joins other citizen reporters working towards a more inclusive future.