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The
case of physically challenged students at UZ
Students Solidarity Trust
September 17, 2007
The ballooning
accommodation crisis at the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ) has spawned difficulties for the physically
challenged and visually impaired students, according to the University
Support Group for Blind Students (USGBS). USGBS is a UZ based organization
representing the interests of visually impaired students.
The decision to evict
all students from the halls of residence has adversely exacerbated
the plight of the physically challenged and visually impaired students.
The UZ administration has instructed the students, through the Disability
Resource Centre (DRC) Coordinator, Mr. B.T Chiparaushe that 17 visually
impaired students who are currently staying at Georgette Hostel
along Kwame Nkrumah be relocated to Montrose Hostel at Number 7
Five Avenue.
The plight of
the other 53 physically challenged students has been trivialized
as it is all alleged that no attempts have been made to alleviate
their predicament given that their conditions compromise their capacity
to be mobile so as to attend lectures.
USGBS states that it
will be a traumatizing experience for the visually challenged students
to negotiate their movement from the Hostel to Mbuya Nehanda Street
to board commuter omnibuses to campus. Currently, only 3 out of
the 17 students have canes to use. Canes are literally the eyes
for the visually challenged.
The students have to
walk a distance of a kilometer crossing two of Harare's most
busy roads, Samora Machel and Herbert Chitepo and given that a pupil
from Girls High School was run over by a car along Samora Machel
less than a year ago, they allege that the University administration
is exposing them to road accidents.
Yet still, the majority
of the students virtually have no money for bus fares to commute
to and from college. The commuter omnibuses are charging ZW$50 000,00
and they may be hiked soon as other routes such as Borrowdale now
have been hiked from the government imposed ZW$20 000, 00 to ZW$100
000, 00 in clear defiance of the ill fated price controls.
The parents of these
students, as is the case with most Zimbabweans, are living well
below the poverty datum line currently pegged at ZW$8, 2 million
per month. The average worker earns a net salary of ZW$2 000 000.00
of which analysts have described as slave wages.
At Montrose Hostel, unlike
previous arrangements at college before July 2007 students'
evictions, the students have stated that there will not be catering
services provided by authorities. Given the above described economic
conditions of the parents of the students they stated that they
face serious hunger and starvation. A plate of the staple meal,
sadza and stew, cost around ZW$1 000 000, 00 in some restaurants
in the city center. Another challenge faced by these students is
that at Montrose Hostels their personal assistants who normally
assist them with reader ship services will not be accommodated meaning
that if they are accommodated at Montrose Hostel there will be virtually
no learning.
Montrose Hostels and
Georgette Hostels in the past used to be reserved for Social Work
Students who conduct most of their lectures at the School of Social
Work located in the city center. The visually impaired students
have expressed their reluctance towards jeopardizing social work
students by occupying residence previously reserved for them.
Visit the Students
Solidarity Trust fact
sheet
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