ABLE-BODIED people often dismiss those living with disabilities as incapable of achieving significant success, particularly in a very demanding field like education.
BY SILAS NKALA
But Ngabaite Muchinguri of Solusi University on the outskirts of Bulawayo is living proof that nothing can be further from the truth.
He has shown that with courage and determination, all things are possible, and he has defied his visual impairment to climb the staircase of success in his chosen field.
The 51-year-old recalled that at one stage in his life, he felt he was destined for the dumpsite of failures and considered taking his own life before making up his mind to defy the odds and fight for success.
The third child in a family of eight, Muchinguri was born in Bulawayo in July 1964.
“Being the only visually impaired person in the family, a larger portion of my prime years was spent in a dark tunnel of hopelessness, which resulted from my father’s relentless articulation of his concern for my future,” he explained.
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Muchinguri was afflicted by a condition called congenial glaucoma from birth, and in the early years of his life, he did not realise that he was different from his siblings as he thought it was normal to be partially-sighted.
The educationist said things changed when he had to go to school at the age of nine, as education for visually-challenged persons was not readily available at the time and the fear of being different was overshadowed by the privilege of being sent to a boarding school — an experience no one in the family had enjoyed before.
As time went on, however, Muchinguri started making comparisons between himself and his siblings and that is when he realised there could be something wrong with him.
“As the years flew past, the urge for making comparisons and contrasts between other family members and myself grew even stronger than ever before and its results evidenced my life’s negatives, which could only be avoidable through suicide,” he said.
“Had it not been for the life-submission prayer that preceded the actual act of terminating my life, I wouldn’t have seen God drawing back the curtain for me to count the blessings that I had earlier been exposed to and which, subsequently, made me turn around.”
Muchinguri said suicide would have locked him out of a great future that included marrying a God-fearing and loving woman, the mother of his two sons and one daughter.
He said suicide would also have deprived him of the chance to prove to the world that disability did not translate into inability as Muchinguri has developed himself into a consummate typist and is highly computer literate. Muchinguri has acquired a Higher National Diploma in Business Studies and three floating trophies for outstanding achievement, which stemmed from being Bulawayo Polytechnic’s first visually impaired student with an Accounting qualification.
He has also lectured accounting in the department of marketing class during his teacher training programme. Muchinguri said during his employment as a training officer in small and medium-scale projects management with a non-governmental organisation, he had the opportunity to train many people who had gone on to be highly successful. He was publicity and training officer for the National Council for the Blind in Bulawayo between 1996 and 2007.
“I have been conferred with a BA degree in Theology, which for me is a tool to get many people turning to Jesus Christ for eternal life. I have also done a gospel music album and video,” said Muchinguri, who also holds a post-graduate qualification in Theology.
Muchinguri said he is currently studying towards a Masters’ degree in geology with the Adventist University of Africa in Kenya, as he awaits ordination as a pastor of the Seventh-Day Adventist church.
Muchinguri has become a role model for many, having attained a level of success that many able-bodied people have failed to reach.
