14 Jun 2019
The ability to use a computer, creating a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, grasping computer language can be challenging for most people. Now add visual impairment to that list and you have something even more daunting.
On the first floor of a muted Bulawayo Public Library there are black polished stares, a distinctly bookish smell that welcomes you when approaching the Information Technology laboratory for visually impaired people.
At first glance, the mind shutters, your eyes wonder around as you enter the lab seeing differently coloured folded walking sticks on the shiny floor, there is a group of people listening intently.
Wearing a white shirt, grey slim fit trousers and pointed black-leathered shoes is Lee, standing in the middle of the room surrounded by an attentive audience who are quick to ask questions where they don’t understand.
Politely he answers back, dimples crinkling as he smiles showing happiness in what he doing with one of the disadvantaged groups in society. Leeman Dube an innovative entrepreneur is training 15 visually impaired individuals for an International Computer Driving License (ICDL) in order to improve their knowledge in Information Communication Technology (ICT).
Dube, popularly known as Lee is the Director of Simphiwe Development Trust, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) that specialises in computer and ICT training for marginalized groups.
Dube is 37 years of age and an active listener who is eager to understand others when they speak.
During training sections with the visually impaired, Lee becomes the eyes of the whole group as he dedicates his time to direct them when they are confused. Pacing up and down, checking the trainees work every time he introduces something new has become routine.
Delighted, Robert Malunda who was born blind said out of the whole group he has been making a lot of mistakes but Dube has been coming to his rescue to assist him understand how ICT gadgets work.
“I remember staying behind after class with Lee who had to clear his schedule in order to help me familiarise with the computer and operating software we are using. It took me a while to figure out how to operate a computer, however thanks to Lee I have caught up with others and am able to do most things on my own now,” said Malunda logging into his Facebook account.
He said learning ICTs was a technological advancement which he did not think was going to be implemented early for the blind.
“The gospel of visually impaired community doing ICTs is not a new baby for some of us. It is something which has been previously proposed but lacked initiative. I am actually glad that Leeman came through for us without any charges needed to learn this course”, Malunda added in happiness.
Despite having community at heart, Dube confessed suffering from insomnia as he spends sleepless nights scratching his head, pondering on how he can change livelihoods of underprivileged in society.
When tossing and turning strikes in the middle of the night, Dube wakes up to make his favourite black coffee which he says calms him down and makes him think better on how best he can be more helpful in society.
“When you are working for the community thinking never stops because you are supposed to strategise 24/7 on possible solutions on how best you can actually improve the lives of the disadvantaged in our communities,” says Dube.
“I realised a gap in the country that the blind and partially blind people are failing to directly access information in society because of the disability they poses. Training them on ICTs was an idea which popped up at night whilst drinking coffee and I took initiative to help them,” he added.
As if the spotlight of being one of the first visually impaired people to train towards holding a certificate in ICDL in Bulawayo was not weighing too much on him, Killion Dube who is partially blind sat stress-free on his office chair gazing at the roof.
Killion said:” ICDL is a new course to our community which will enable us to manage to do things like programming, word documenting and implementing it in other areas. This course will empower me to pass the knowledge I will receive to other people.”
Working as a Braille Coordinator at the Bulawayo City Public Library, he further expressed his jubilance on participating on a course where he has a chance of securing an international recognised certificate which he can use to get scholarships to further his education on ICTs.
“All thanks to Simphiwe Trust, in affiliation with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) we are able to acquire skills which are self-beneficiary as we will be able to access ICT gadgets and other reading material we may need online,” he uttered.
Raised in Nkayi rural disctrict, Lee knows what it means to make a difference in society after coming across various NGOs helping out his community with food aid during his childhood.
He says growing up in Gwelutshena he saw NGOs donate maize and cooking oil to the village.
“I can remember my mother’s happiness when NGOs intervened with food that could sustain us for months. I grew up with my 2 sisters and younger brother whilst our father was at work in the city,” he recalled.
Replicating the same fruits of assisting less fortunate groups in communities, Dube has made a name for himself in the City of Kings by also training prison inmates on how to use ICTs, a move which has been widely cherished.
Admiring his commitment to help the vulnerable, Dube’s colleagues described him as a role model and passionate individual who intends to uplift the Matabeleland Province.
A close buddy, Godfrey Moyo was nostalgic of the time he met the soft –spoken man saying: “I could tell the day I met him that he was a visionary, a man of few words who was compassionate about changing the well-being of others in the community.”
“In 2017, I met Leeman at a workshop where he had shared an idea about donating school shoes for the children in Tsholotsho. It was then that we started working together to mobilise people to donate shoes to make a difference in child’s life,” said Moyo.
He further commended Dube’s current work of trying to rehabilitate prison inmates by training them in computer literacy which has become a prerequisite skill in a global village where everything is gradually becoming computerised.
Nkosinathi Nkomo echoed Moyo’s words by expressing his amusement on the work of Dube, saying he was a hard worker who never ceases to amaze him because of his eagle’s eye to handpick vulnerable groups and offering to teach them a skill which is still difficult to grasp for some degreed individuals in society.
For Dube, the ideal dream was to experience University life, but it could not happen due to financial constraints after he passed his A’level at Northlea High School. As if that was not enough for the then youthful Dube, unemployment hindered his chances of getting a job.
As a charismatic Director, Dube feels there is still a lot he needs to learn in order to fulfill his desire of helping a lot of people in community.
He said: “In civil society you learn new things everyday as you form consortiums with different organisations especially if you are working towards the same goal. The only challenge that we are experiencing is funding of our programs we are conducting.”
Dube declared that his organisation’s priority was to acquire funding as it will be the breakthrough to cater for some challenges he was experiences.
Heavyheartedly he stammered: “you see, you see funding is the main challenge that we face as NGOs no matter the brilliant ideas we might have,” he paused before adding that “he needed more computers so that he can open an ICT center to teach more people.”
Simphiwe Development Trust is a member of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisation (NANGO), a coordinating umbrella body of NGOs operating in the country aiming to represent and strengthen NGOs by providing space to dialogue and engage in order to fulfill member’s visions and missions.
NANGO Western Region Coordinator, Nhlanhla Mlilo was optimistic about Dube’s project of including the marginalised groups into the information society.
Mlilo said: “Leeman’s work is unique in Matabeleland, if there are other people doing the same project they would be very few. For the blind, it’s not about learning, reading and typing only, but we are hoping to create a visually impaired coder who will someday be able to have his own start up program.”
Dube revealed that in his line of work he is inspired by people who trust his abilities to change and improve the welfare of others. He said: “Am mostly inspired by individuals who know where they are going, strive joyfully to accomplish their goals and show determination to accomplish what they are set out to do.”
The determination which has been shown by the visually impaired and prison inmates has inspiredthe 37 year old innovative entrepreneur to gear up to hold more ICT training programs in the region stating that he intends to reach rural settlements in the near future.
The ever hopeful, Dube said: “Enhancing access to information for all is the target. For now we are still trying to works with prisons in the region so that we can improve the computer literacy of inmates. Also, after finishing the training of trainers program with the visually impaired we will be targeting the other visually impaired who feel they can manage to handle the ICDL course we have for them.”
“If we manage to get a donor the idea is to also teach people in rural areas so that we try to close the technological gap between people in urban areas and those in rural areas,” he said.
By Lovejoy Phiri.
