LESSONS IN FAILURE

On this day I went for my usual outreach, my advocacy of sensitization of women and those with disabilities towards the 2023 Elections in Nigeria. 

The turn out was good as more than a hundred and 50  women had gathered, mostly those with  disabilities. 

The community, Anguwan Guragu is named after those with disabilities of the legs and feet…

I had been having a good time since I started this campaign and it has continued to build up a lot of passion and dedication in me mainly due to how enthusiastic women have continue to become, showing more interest in politics. 

This was the fifth community I was visiting and it seemed like this would be different because I had a larger turn out of women with disability. 

I guess I would count myself lucky for  confronting just a few challenges that were easy to navigate. At the most it would be lack of proper communication which would turn out ti be resolved quickly, lateness in starting an event and maybe not having a good turn out as expected. 

Aiming for a successful outing I went, I set the discussions in motion not knowing what awaits me ahead. It was a blunder, a mistake that I didn’t envisage as a noticed a part of the group was not following in the conversation. I wondered if what we were saying was making sense even though there attention was still focused on the discussion. 

I seem not to understand why they were not talking or even making inputs like the rest of the women, just as I wa wondering what they could be thinking m, one of them made a sigh with her fist. It was then it dawned on that they were deaf. 

The issues was how could we communicate with them since none of my team had any knowledge of sign language. It was at that moment I realize the blunder I had made. I did not put that in consideration while planing for the events. It was a mistake I felt bad as well as embarrassed about. How could I preach inclusiveness when I had not made adequate arrangements for proper communication. It felt really bad.

I quickly signaled to one of the ladies if she could write and fortunately she was literate and that saved the day. She became our interpreter, we would write and she would in turn interpret to her friends. 

I learnt a valued lesson that day. I learnt to be more thorough while planning or preparing for an event. 

Unfortunately, I tried subsequently to find sign langue to no avail. I am still searching for anyone who can be of help.  And subsequently, I will want to have that in our videos as well to help breach the gap. I am calling on anyone willing to help us interpret our work in sign language to help us achieve this feat. 

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