Caption: Brown Kapi sitting on the show’s set.
Caption: Kapi on set.
Caption: Food stuff and two wheelchair donated to PWDs at KiraKira
Caption: Mrs Tore (Kirakira Disable Group leader) addressing students from Butuka
Primary, on the needs of the disable, as Kapi looks on.
By MATTHEW
VARI
Wednesday, August 7, 2013 (Midweek Chronicle, PNG)
I had the privilege this week of meeting a
person I have always admired. He is an advocate of change in peoples’ mindsets, something in a society like ours that comes by at snail’s pace. It was a usual slow
Monday for us in the news world, and nothing was going on. Just as sleep
beckoned me on my desk, one of the guys came up and told me to see someone who
was outside in his vehicle.
In the journalism world, being summoned to
mysterious vehicles outside the newsroom could mean a lot of things- with the
first on my list being a disgruntled reader. In no point did I realize that the
individual who summoned me would be the President of the Papua New Guinea
Rehabilitation Centre, Mr Brown Kapi, who is well known as an advocator of the
equal rights of People With Disability (PWD). He is also the Founder of the
Brown Kapi Foundation.
Being disable himself, MrKapi is a beacon of
hope for all PWDs in the country. Fighting for equal recognition at a national
scale like no other before him. My ignorance to not even contemplate that the
individual that summoned me could not have been able to walk into the office-
is the sort of mindset, disregarding the existence of PWDs.
This is why the PNG Rehab Centre and Kapi
Foundation, in collaboration with Kundu 2 Television Service, will air a first
of its kind, historical program called, Wheels of Change- promoting and
informing on the lives of PWDs in PNG, tonight at 7:30pm.The show will be run
once a fortnight, for an hour till 8:30pm on Kundu TV.
The challenges that PWDs face today are
different from what they faced some 10 years ago. Traditional communal
societies are becoming more individualized then before. The monetary system has
changed many of the values we once had to collectively support each other,
leaving PWDs struggle even more each day to survive.
There are no official statistics but according
to the World Health Organization, 15 per cent of the world’s population has
some form of disabilities or impairments, which means that for PNG there are
almost 975,000 living with disability impairments. Of this group about 2 per
cent or (19,500 people) receive services and the remaining 98 per cent
(955,500) are not receiving any support.
Arriving at the PNG Rehab Centre, I could not
help but admire the modest settings outside leading into the building where I
was impressed with the soothing relaxed backdrop of creamy colored walls of the
office. Led into the conference room adjoined to the office I was instantly
surprised at the intricate detailing of the production stage, where the show
will be filmed.
The words I would use to describe it are,
bright and welcoming. It was built in three years through the efforts of MrKapi
and the staff in raising funds- notable Individuals like the Governor for NCD,
PowesParkop, playing a vital role.
Through the mentioned partners and the core
sponsors like Frangipani Car Hire, who have come on board to sponsor the
program with K35,000 and the National Information and Communication Technology
Authority K14,000, the show has become a reality. MrKapi thanked them for their
support to the cause.
Wheels of Change is initiative derived from
the vision that disability, despite being a long neglected issue, takes center-stage
in the viewing public, shedding light to the actual world of a disable person
and how they struggle on a day to day basis.
The program will take viewers away from the
comfort zones and luxury of being able bodied into a world filled with regret,
sorrow and desolation- a world seen through the eye of a disable person.
“Wheels of change must not be seen as a show
for people to feel sorry for us as objects of charity, but see us as equals and
understand what we go through.”
“The dream and purpose of this program is to
showcase the abilities of disable persons, because in the last 37 years or so
after independence- everyone looks at disability as just being that and nothing
more,” MrKapi said.
Content of the program will consist of segments
like feature stories, covering disable individual’s lives in the country and
also compare the lives of those in rural to urban settings and what day
experience.
There will also be talkback sessions, where
special guests from all sectors of society will be invited to give their views
on issues like; accessibility; disability data; inclusive education/employment;
and other cross cutting issues will be debated during the show.
Other segments include ability verses
disability, which aims to show the ability side of disability. The segment will
show the special talents and unique skills possessed by PWDs- showcasing their
abilities rather than their disabilities, and in the concluding segment of the
show- letters will be read out on comments regarding the content of the show
and views of the audience.
When asked why the words“Wheels of Change”was
the preferred name of the program. MrKapi said that the word “wheel” was chosen
because a wheelchair is one of the first apparatus associated with disability that
enters the mind of the average Papua New Guineans, apart from other assistive
devices. The word “change” comes in to represent the positive change to the
status of disability being a neglected issue in the country.
“The wheel is a very symbolic apparatus-
symbolizing disability, progress, and represents control, which is we ourselves
have control of our destiny,” he pointed out.
Wheels of change will derive its program
content from the great work being carried out by the Kapi Foundation and the
PNG Rehab Centre, with Kundu 2 providing the video crews and reporters working
with the host Mr Kapi.
Tonight’s program will feature stories such
as the Food Feeding Program, which is run by the Kapi foundation, who donated
cartons of food stuff and wheel chairs to the disabled in the Kirakira
neighborhood, last week Friday. It will also feature the donation of
wheelchairs to two PWDs at the 5 Mile Ridge Settlement.
“It’s about time we make moves and go to see
them, we collect data identifying their needs- if it is assistive devices they
need, we will provide.”
“Using this data we collect, we can also
provide training programs tailored for their needs.”
Mr Kapi also made mention of the negative
attitudes and social taboos against disable people in many parts of the country.
This leads to neglect of these vulnerable people hampering the development of
their God given potential.
“Some customs say that it is a curse to be
disable, other do not one to expose disable people in public.”
“The reality is that sickness and disability
can happen to anyone as long as your human- I was one who went through that.”
He urged citizen to stop and think that you may
ignore it. It took him a random day in 1999 to end up in a wheelchair. What he
thought was a common back ache, turned out to be rupture of a blood clot to the
seventh vertebrae in his spine column. He was 27 when it happened.
“The biggest disability that we face today is
not my disability.”
“It is the so called able persons who have
disable minds, and cannot understand.”
“That is why we have been sidelined and left
out in the cold for too long,” he said.
As they dropped me off at the news room, I
realized not only how blessed I am to be able bodied, but also how blessed
people like MrKapi are in embracing their disability as blessing and not a
curse- progress that will move us all forward and change us all.
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