A Tsholotsho woman is appealing for assistance to take her 12-year-old deaf twins to school as they have not received formal education since birth.
Happiness Ndlovu of Emlotheni Village in Ward 16 said she has been taking care of her children, Siyabonga Ndlovu and Sibongiseni Ndlovu on her known after their father abandoned them.
She failed to find a suitable school for them and they have missed out on education.
“I don’t have the resources to send my children to school. I am unemployed and their father ran away and left us when they were still young. I didn’t know how to assist them, they are deaf,” said Ndlovu.
She said she also has challenges communicating with her children.
“I try to communicate with them, but they don’t understand, I try to send them here and there but it’s difficult,” said Ndlovu.
She said her wish is for her children to access education in a school that can accommodate them.
Meanwhile, Chief Gampu said he recently found out about the matter and has been trying to assist the family.
“They are deaf and have never attended school, I also discovered this recently, they were being kept at home,” he said.
Chief Gampu said he took the matter to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare who promised to look for a school suitable for them, pay school fees, buy uniforms and cover transport costs to the school.
“So far, they haven’t given us feedback on whether they have secured the school or not, but they had said the school will be outside Tsholotsho as they were talking about transport money,” he said.
He added that they want to mobilise resources to build a school or a classroom at an existing school to cater for children with disabilities.
“We are yet to sit down with the elders, I recently told them that if they have children with disabilities, they should come forward with their details so that we plan. So far, I know these two in ward 16, it’s really sad that at 12 years these children don’t even know ‘A’, this is really terrible,” said Chief Gampu.
