Born in 1994, Jean de Dieu Uwukunda lost his father when he was still in primary three, a moment he recalls with sorrow. Since then, life became even harder, as he watched his mother struggle to fend for him and his two brothers.

Once he completed ordinary level in secondary, Uwukunda opted for vocational education at Kavumu TVET School so that he could finish studies early, start working and reduce his mother’s burden.

While  in ordinary level and at TVET School, he often helped teachers draw diagrams in class, and engrave on school uniforms as well. His friends gave him encouraging feedback and motivated him to pursue drawing as a career, which he did and was soon able to make some money to afford basic needs.

One morning in March 2018, Uwukunda abruptly suffered a severe headache and vomiting and eventually went into coma where he spent three days, unfortunately he lost his sight, owing to some brain vessels that had been damaged.

"Being told that I would not see anything again,” he shares, "was the moment for me.”

Almost a year later, Uwukunda failed to speak and eat because of depression.

"While I was depressed I asked God whether it was true that I was not going to draw again in my life, and pleaded with Him to help me be able to see again. I promised God that if I would improve to blurry vision, I would use that chance to the maximum. As time went by, my vision became blurry to things that are too close,” he narrates.  

This, he says, was a chance for him to do some painting, but not at the same pace as before.

"I can’t see a photo clearly, I see it in a blurry form, and I can’t easily differentiate colours. Most of the time I draw from imagination, and the experience I got before becoming visually impaired helps me a lot,” he explains. 

Uwukunda affirms that painting has been a stress reliever for him and that it has helped him overcome depression.

Nowadays, he does painting for a few people, although a high percentage of the earning is spent on medication.

"Every two months I have to buy medication worth Rwf120, 000. The medication helps ease the headache when I spend a lot of time staring at something while painting,” he explains. He says that besides the little money he gets from painting, the rest of the money to afford the medicine comes from good Samaritans.

Future aspirations

Uwukunda is now based in Kicukiro at Masaka Resource Centre of the Blind, where he is learning braille, a system that uses combinations of raised dots to spell letters and numbers and helps people living with visual disability to read and write. The centre is also helping him and other 21 visually impaired people to learn how to walk by themselves, cook and wash clothes, among other activities.

Concerning his future aspirations, Uwukunda says that he wants to do painting in a more professional way, earn money and be able to take care of his family and help other people living with disabilities, emphasising that they face challenges that require extra care, which many can’t afford.

He also wishes to go to a school that teaches linguistics and be able to communicate with people of different nationalities once he becomes a professional painter.

For Uwukunda, any form of disability should not make one feel odd in society.

"The message that I give people living with a disability is that if you are still alive, everything is possible. As long as you can breathe, God has a plan for you,” he asserts.

He adds that those without disability should not regard disabled people as incapable people, but instead, be encouraging and motivate the disabled to defy odds.