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Namibia: Down But Not Out
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New Era (Windhoek)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Moses Magadza
Windhoek
A 27-year-old Namibian student who was involved in a serious accident, in which five people died while he was severely injured and paralysed six years ago, is defying his disability. He has enrolled at the University of Namibia to pursue his childhood dream: attain a degree and help develop his country.
Churupatti Katjivena (27) was once an athletic, powerfully built young man and as he grew up in Okakarara, life proceeded in even tenor.
"I had a burning desire to one day go to university and attain a degree. I wanted to become a teacher. I have always admired and respected teachers because of their role in shaping tomorrow's generation. Every successful person went through the hands of a teacher and I was determined to become one," he said in an interview.
He admitted that in life, some blows can be so severe that they knock one down so badly that getting back to one's feet can be very difficult, adding that many people incapacitated by grim circumstances have resigned themselves to their new fate and accepted their misfortune as God's wish.
"I am down but not out. Life is full of struggles. Through difficulty, I will succeed and realise my dream," he said. After Grade 12 at Okakarara Secondary School, Katjivena changed his mind about being a teacher and enrolled for a four-year course in plumbing.
"I was a strong young man and I thought I would train for a job that called for physical strength. By the time I was in the third year of my studies I was so excited at the prospect of graduating and furthering my studies in that field," he said.
Unbeknown to the ambitious young man, fate had other plans.
On August 11, 2002 he was one of 11 passengers in a vehicle that was being driven by his friend along a gravel road in Okakarara.
He remembered waking up in Windhoek Central Hospital two weeks later to bad news.
"I learnt that the vehicle overturned, that five people with whom I had been travelling had died, that I had sustained a broken neck and that I had been paralysed and would be confined to a wheelchair all my life. I was also told that I had spent two weeks in a coma. I was devastated," he recalled.
He was discharged from hospital on December 16, 2002 and went to stay with his mother who is a nurse in Okakarara. Later his aunt, a teacher, took him to her house in Omatjete.
"The accident broke my body. It did not break my determination to attain a degree although every time I looked at my physical state I would wonder how I would do so," he said.
Then something else happened that inspired him and boosted his confidence.
"I was watching television when the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) showed a disabled female student from the Polytechnic of Namibia. She had no hands and used her feet to write with a pen held between her toes. I could still use my hands, even though in a limited capacity. I could write and that girl inspired me," he said.
He applied at Unam, was admitted and now says he is firmly on the path to self-actualisation through reading for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administration.
"I want to thank Ms Jessica Barrow, an American volunteer teaching in Namibia for linking me up with a donor in the United States who bought me a battery powered wheelchair for nearly N$30000. It has made moving from one lecture to another a lot easier. I also got a loan from a bank to pay for my fees for this year. I have no clue where I will get fees for next year. My uncle who is 98 years old also gave me a bit of money, which went to this year's tuition. All letters that I have written to various companies to assist me have gone unanswered. Yet, I am confident that God will be with me. God is for all of us. I believe that trying situations like the one I am going through are meant to test our faith in God. I will take my studies seriously and pass well enough to inspire someone to help me with my fees. My advice to people who may go through what happened to me is simple: keep your faith and you will come out stronger," he said.
He was also full of praises for Unam students, whom he said had shown him remarkable kindness.
"When I was registered I worried about how fellow students would relate to me. They are very kind to me and go out of their way to make me feel comfortable whether I am in class or in the dining room. The staff of Unam has also been very supportive," he said.
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He, however, says the same cannot be said of the physical environment at Unam, which he says is not very friendly to disabled, wheelchair-bound students.
"Not all buildings have wheel chair tracks and the desks in most lecture rooms are made in such a way that using them from a wheel chair is not possible. While there are some wheel chair tracks, they do net lead to every facility on campus. I can't reach the tuck shop and have to ask someone to buy something for me while praying that they do not disappear with my money," he said.
Observers say the fact that Katjivena continues to look on the sunny side of life notwithstanding an ordeal that has broken other men and women of sterner emotional material will inspire many - the able bodied and the disabled.
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