That life is absurd is the reality we all live with. We live to fight it. But when you are an orphan, a Genocide survivor, and lose your most salient sense organs and become blind, the absurdity falls a tad low. Unfortunately for Console Niyibizi, these levels of challenges were just the beginning, as with the clock of life ticking, she has had to add a bastard child, a result of rape – itself a betrayal by a close friend – to her piteous CV. What more, she can’t find a job despite graduating with a degree from the Nation University of Rwanda.Niyibizi, though, is not made of a soft metal that can just wither easily in the face of the wretchedness of the world; she is determined to fight her way, achieve and live the wishes her later mother set for her. For this, she is determined to ensure the last 30 years of her abysmal life will only be the magic spark to take her to places.Born normalNiyibizi was not born visually impaired. Meeting with this writer at the Nation Union of Dsabilities organisation, she said her eyes got complications when she was four. And she is adamant she is just a victim of surgery-gone-bad when she was 11 years old. With the disability, she has endured the last 21 years fighting stigma and the injustices of the society.Niyibizi attended H.V.P Gatagara for her primary education before joining Groupe Scolaire Gahini for her secondary. With a good performance, she was able to secure admission to the National University of Rwanda on government scholarship. “While at university in my second year, I got pregnant after being raped,” she says. “It was someone I thought I knew too well, a friend who had never even showed any sign of interest in me… just from the blue, he forced himself on me and we fought for several minutes.”Niyibizi, like many abused persons, did not report her abuser. She thought it had all ended there. Wrong. Two months later, and she had not experienced her monthly. Worried, she went to hospital to find out if she had any complications.“That was when the nurse tested me and told me I was pregnant. It was shocking! My entire world was coming down on me when I thought I was slowly shedding myself of the shadows of disability,” Niyibizi says.Pregnant and strugglesIt was during this moment that she realised it was better to take the man who had raped her into her life. The man had been proposing to him during the last two months, and she had turned him away. Ironically, now that she was desperate, the direction changed in both ways. As she went in search of the man to bear responsibility, the fellow showed her a clean pair of heels. It would become a tag of war.“I tried involving my only aunt to help me hold the man responsible since he had accepted that he was the father of my unborn child, but she cared less. It was a tough time when the baby came. Eventually, I went to women and children rights organisations for help,” she says.This particular decision saw the father of her child, whose identity she refuses to divulge to the press, was held accountable. Today, the man gives the child monthly Rwf50,000, but Niyibizi says the money is too little.“I’m three months short for rent at Masaka in Kimo Sector where I live with my daughter and a house-help,” Niyibizi says.She sees a job as the only means to push her toward the path of self-sustenance so she can take better care of her daughter, who is now two years old.At NUR, Niyibizi had struggled her way amid societal injustices and stigma to attain a Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Psychology in 2011. But the degree has not been of much help for now, as she still can’t get a job. She blames her disability for being ‘ignored’ despite applying for several jobs, some of which she has sat interviews. “Although I’m lucky to have gotten a chance to study, I have encountered several challenges. I spent more time in school than other students because of being visually impaired. We also had to find ways to study and compete with others despite our disabilities but I’m grateful to the Government and ministries involved for having advocated for our being able to go through with school,” she says. “Some students and teachers isolated us and always considered us as burdens and continuously proved to us that we needed special schools because of our disabilities,” Niyibizi adds.Her wish…Like a revered leader addressing her subjects, Niyibizi resonates with determination and assurance when she spells out her wishes in life. She says: “I want to let people know that we are also competent, just give us a chance and look beyond our disabilities. I really wish to request the institutions involved and government to sensitize people with disabilities and their families about exercising their rights. Even in school my fellow students would have self-pity upon themselves and would go as far as saying this is not for us. They thought they had no rights just because their families didn’t instill confidence in them at all.”
