On a Friday, people congregated at Chigumula in Blantyre to witness the official opening of a physiotherapy clinic aimed at bridging a gap for inadequate specialised treatment spaces in the country.
The community was jolly; mothers with children with physical challenges were excited simply because they would no longer travel that long distance to seek rehabilitation services.
At the heart of the celebration came a sketch from mothers with children with physical disabilities.
The mothers had a story to tell but in a simple way and to them, drama was the right discipline to use.
- Advertisement -
For others, who are into drama, they have had to perfect their craft through the corridors of the university.
- Advertisement -
But these mothers had not been to any university to learn the drama skills let alone attending any drama workshop, they used their own inborn abilities to create a production that left a mark.
Did they rehearse comprehensively to come up with the sketch or did they use any script for it, they simply did not but rather they rode on a production known as sewero lopukutsa in Chichewa.
This is a production where actors simply just come up with a topic followed by giving each other roles without following the script.
This is what the mothers did to reach out to the gathering with a sketch that exposed the tendency of other mothers who lock their children with special needs in the house.
- Advertisement -
In their drama, the showed the audience which included the guest of honour from Malawi Against Physical Disability (Map) that art was an important vehicle for disseminating important messages.
Through their play, they educated fellow mothers that children with special needs need to be treated with all the love just like all other children and not locked in the house.
The mothers even went an extra mile to tell it all in the sketch that children with special needs also deserve to go out and play with fellow children let alone being sent to school to attain education.
In one of the scenes, a mother with a special needs child, tells a fellow mother with a special needs child that “she does not have to bother herself with such a child but rather lock him or her for her own freedom”.
“Look at me, I have nothing to worry, a special needs child is such a problem and that is why I just lock her up in the house and that gives me all the time to do all my errands,” she said.
But the other one sat her colleague down saying she was wrong as children with special needs have rights just like all other children.
The climax of the production was when the two mothers came together to share notes on how to take care of special needs children including making routine visits to physiotherapy spaces for their rehabilitation.
The mothers made the production sweeter when they signed off with a song that united them to speak with one voice earning praise from the audience.
“We have never gone to any drama school or college to learn this; I can just say that it is inborn. As mothers with children with special needs, we always meet where we sing songs and at times even share ideas on businesses,” Irene Rajabu, said.
She said with the opening of the physiotherapy clinic, they decided to celebrate it with a play which to them was easy to connect with the gathering but also relay the message.
“Children with special needs encounter several challenges and in most cases miss out on opportunities because they are locked in homes with no movement,” Rajabu said.
Margret John, who also has a special needs child and has been taking her for physiotherapy until now, said as mothers they were happy to play a lead role in utilising art to tell stories from the community and also express themselves.
“We do not have proper platforms to reach out to people in authority with the challenges we face in communities and so, when we get opportunities like these especially in a play, we express ourselves,” John said.
Map Chief Executive Officer Mike Nyirenda, who bemoaned inadequate specialised treatment spaces in the country such as physiotherapy which he said is crucial in rehabilitation, said he was short of words with the production the mothers presented.
“There was no addition or subtraction in their production, they presented the issue the way it is. There are cases out there of families or mothers locking special needs children in the house. The women could not have told it better than through a play,” Nyirenda said.
He said art will always take a lead role in being used as a tool for disseminating special needs issues in order to bring about change.
“Women are good story tellers and the production they presented was powerful. Women need to be empowered to tell their stories and I am happy to see them rising to tackle such an issue. You could see that people enjoyed the play which offered entertainment but also at the same time spoke to them with an important issue,” Nyirenda said.
He went on to commend Jacaranda Foundation for its investment in a Physiotherapy Unit which he said is more than a building equipped with modern equipment.
“Recovery extends beyond treating physical symptoms and that having more rehabilitation facilities for children is a proper way of offering support, guidance and resources they need to regain function and reclaim their lives as shown by the women in the production,” Nyirenda said.
He said in line with Malawi Health Sector Strategic Plan III 2023 -2030, the opening of the physiotherapy clinic it meant that the country was moving towards Universal Health Coverage.
“This is not merely an investment in healthcare infrastructure but rather it is an investment in people, families and the future well-being of our nation hence the women taking a role in using drama to speak about it,” Nyirenda said.
The clinic’s physiotherapist Lusungu Mtawali Tembo said the clinic which has spacious space will provide extra service apart from physiotherapy.
“The clinic will provide physiotherapy services to children and also offer mothers with training. Going forward, we are also looking into other fields such as occupational therapy and speech,” she said.
Mtawali Tembo said at the moment they attend to 70 children with disability every month with the most common cases being cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus.
“When the women come for special needs rehabilitation for their children, they discuss so many issues and drama has always been part of their bill. It is an easy discipline for them when it comes to expressing themselves,” she said.
Jacaranda Foundation Executive Director Luc Deschamps said the clinic was born in 2018 after seeing that more children were coming to the school with special needs.
“But being a school, we could not offer the services until later when we decided to help the community. We started with a small room but now with support from Michele Ader and William Green from United States of America and other stakeholders, we have expanded the space,” Deschamps said.
He said just as Jacaranda loves the arts where at their school they let fly the students to utilise their talents, they also encourage people in the community to do the same.
“What the women presented today is something special. A massive production that spoke directly to the audience,” Deschamps said.
Founder of Jacaranda School for Orphans Marie Da Silva said over the years, they have seen change in a lot of special needs children and that she was happy that women were helping out to bring about change through art.
“We have had children who were not walking let alone doing anything but through physiotherapy and other rehabilitation services, their lives have changed,” she said.
Da Silva said she was touched with the play that the women presented and that she shade tears.
“To see these women act in such a way and present to the people such important issues especially talking about special needs is something that melted my heart. We need to tell these stories but we can tell them better through the talents that we have,” she said.
