Limbless woman appeals for help

PIC: Edridah can feed herself using her feet (Photo by Kyle Duncan Kushaba)

Life can be cruel, unfortunately you might not realise it, and maybe you might but not as much as Edridah Tumwebaze, a 35-year-old woman living in Hamubuga parish, Bugarama Sub County, Ndorwa East in Kabale District who has lived all her life without arms. As you complain about how God has been so unfair in your life because you are still poor, first think of this, do you have two arms and hands?  Ever wondered what a life without arms could be like? I bet you don’t. 

How we found her

With a bunch of friends from the Bakiga nation, we decided to pay a visit to this lady and what we found was simply dumb-founding. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Some things make you cherish the little God gave you but until you meet this lady you won’t curse God for being jobless or having issues with your partner. Tumwebaze has none of the above but she has fought through it all and accepted who she is, something that makes her stronger every day.

 

 Edridah Tumwebaze with her autistic brother Vicensio Arinaitwe.

 

Growing up

Miss Tumwebaze was born without arms and she says it was something unusual for the locals who always came to look at her.

“When I was young, it felt so bad when kids in our village insulted me for being disabled and useless but somehow it grew on me and I accepted who I am. We are just the two of us, my brother and I, he also has challenges with autism. We were looked at as the curse of the village but it didn’t stop me from soldiering through it, as you can see I have lived like this for the last 35 years.”

Her brother Vincensio Arinaitwe is autistic which makes Edrida the bread winner of the family on the little one acre of land that their parents left them.  When her father died, she was so young while her mother passed when she was 14 years of age.

“When my mum died I felt helpless because she was the one helping me with everything like feeding me, bathing and basically everything else. Few neighbours had gotten used to me and I found it so difficult copying. There is no worse feeling in the world like feeling unwanted and despised.

School

You might think that her status would hinder her from attaining any formal education but Edrida Tumwebaze actually managed to go to school.

“I managed to attend school until Primary seven and I was brilliant in class but my parents didn’t have enough money to see me through school so I dropped out. I can write very well using my feet and if I can remember very well, I was one of the brightest students in class.

I always had a dream of being a teacher unfortunately I could not realise it because of my status but nonetheless I thank God for the gift of life”

Helping her brother

They say disability is not inability and indeed Edrida has been of great help to her autistic brother Arinaitwe. She is the one who tells him what to do as he cannot do anything without being guided.

“I guide him in everything. He has very low self-esteem so I have to keep encouraging him especially when in presence of other people who are not like us. Even to do something as simple as cooking food, I make sure I am monitoring him”

Neighbourhood

“As we grew up, the neighbours became friendly and offered to help. Our immediate neighbours have always been with us and they help with so many things like cooking, planting crops, washing among others. They have always made sure that we are okay though of course they have their own families to take care of. The truth is that we are needy. It’s hard to afford food because I can’t dig and, I only depend on help which doesn’t come in everyday”

The village hasn’t done much for her and her brother as they still depend on handouts from well-wishers. She was lucky enough that a Good Samaritan came and built her a new house after finding her and her brother living in a grass thatched house. Now they have a semi-permanent iron roofed house which at least won’t be washed away by heavy downpour. One other notable thing is that the district helped her construct a tank to collect all the rain water for home use as she cannot by any means carry a jerry can to the nearby water source.

“When it is a dry season, neighbours help out but not all the time so I have to tell Vincensio to fetch some water. Sometimes he forgets while on his way to the water source so I have to go with him to the well”

Plea

Tumwebaze pleads with the government and well-wishers to come to her rescue because it has been so hard for her to cope.

‘I need so many things but one thing that I dream of is a solar set. I suffer so much when my lamp goes out, it is hard for me to do anything without light and I pray to God someone helps me. I wish the president could come to visit me too, the other day I heard him on radio saying he will help the disabled. You people in the news might reach him for me; I also want to pray for blessings upon him for being a good man of the people.

Tumwebaze also needs a constant supply of food which she can’t get right now;“Sometimes we go hungry because our neighbours are also poor and therefore can’t help us all the time. My brother cries when he gets hungry even at his age so I get frustrated a lot. If we had food, I could cope up with him. Life hasn’t been fair on us but we thank God nonetheless”

Future Plans

Tumwebaze like any other human being has plans. She still hasn’t lost her dream of being a teacher and she appeals to the government to come and help her so she can be able to start a school for disabled people in Kabale.

God works in mysterious ways; even after all this time Tumwebaze is still fighting on for betterment of her family and her village. If a physically handicapped woman could take care of an autistic person for more than 20 years who are you to be scared of bringing a single life to the world? More so with your fully functioning body.