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Violence disables - stop violence!
National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH)
May 26, 2008

As an umbrella body of organizations of and for people with disabilities in Zimbabwe whose mandate is to improve the lives and well being of people with disabilities, NASCOH notes with mounting concern and sadness that the senseless violence currently gripping the country has had the unfortunate effect of increasing the number of people with disabilities in the country.

This unfortunate development comes at a time when our health and social services departments are grossly overstretched and singularly unable to deal with the influx of casualties of violence. It also places a heavy burden on disability organizations across the country, which are commonly under-resourced, under funded and undeserved, as, ultimately, they will have to bear the burden of rehabilitating and providing a wide range of support services to these newly-created people with disabilities.

Sadly, the effects of this violence, which, ironically, is ridiculously easy to avoid, will continue to haunt its victims and society long after the violence has ended. Bread winners have been lost, while many of the victims have been so brutalized, mutilated and maimed that they have been deprived of the means of earning a living, thus further compounding the cycle of poverty that has almost become synonymous with disability.

It is sad to note that it is not only physical disabilities that have been created, but that disabilities have been created across the whole disability spectrum. Limbs have been severed and mutilated beyond use, thus adding to the physical disability population; people have been subjected to such brutal head injuries that their sight and hearing has been affected, thus swelling the numbers of the visually and hearing impaired; while some have been traumatized so much by the intensity and brutality of the violence that they have joined or will soon join the ranks of the mentally challenged. Tragically, even innocent children have not been spared, as some of them have also been beaten up and forced to witness brutal beatings and horrific tortures of their parents and relatives. These children have been scarred and traumatized for life. They have been deprived of their future.

The current violence is not only a flagrant assault on the country's disability management efforts; it is inimical to the whole process of development, and an affront to ubuntu, the age-old African spirit of humanness, togetherness and sharing, for which Zimbabwe, especially, is renowned. In this vein, we call upon the responsible parties to end this violence, and work towards the creation of a better Zimbabwe for all, including people with disabilities.

Visit the NASCOH fact sheet

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