Finding Ability in Disability

“God show me where no one is going, that’s where I want to go, somewhere I will make a resounding change.” That was Maggie Sambo’s prayer when she felt a sudden urge to give back to the community. Sambo is a somatologist and owner of Nail Bar and Beauty Studio behind The George Hotel, in Manzini.

Deafness is usually a barrier to employment for affected individuals. People have misconceptions about the competence of deaf people in the workplace, and companies might not want the extra expense of hiring a sign language interpreter. In her ebook What Every Deaf Person Needs to Know, Sarah Terras, who is also deaf, mentions that one of the reasons why employers won’t hire deaf people is the communication difficulty. “The employers who work in a fast-paced environment may not have time to write notes back and forth between them and deaf employees,” she said. Sambo looked beyond all this and took 10 deaf students under her wing to train them in the beauty industry, even though she knew no sign language clue. Slowly she learned how to sign and is now so fluent that she interpreted when I spoke to one of her staff members, Sifiso Dlamini.

It was in 2010 when she got her first batch of students from Siteki School for the Deaf. Since they were not originally from Manzini and would have struggled with bus fare, she accommodated them and saw to all their needs in her home in Ngwane Park; all 10 of them! “When it’s a calling it doesn’t feel burdensome,” she said.

Sambo expressed her gratitude to Dups for all the assistance they rendered buying student kits and footing the cost of their graduation ceremony. She was also grateful to some customers that would drop by and observe that there were many deaf students in training and would just bring a bucket from KFC, shoes, toiletries, clothes or any other help they could offer. After the training, Sambo employed her former students and placed some of them at other salons. Over the years, some have moved to other places, while others have stayed on. One of them is Sifiso.

Sambo had glowing remarks about Sifiso, who she said took his work seriously. She said he was the first person to come and open the shop, and the last person to leave the shop. He does not need prompting to clean up the shop and doesn’t complain about carrying out extra duties. Sambo said Sifiso was as good as a somatologist now because he does everything in the business, and he was the best student, beating the girls that he trained with.

Sifiso said he loved doing nails, hair and massages and wouldn’t choose anything else in life. He’s very proud of the fact that most women prefer to have him, not his female colleagues, do their nails because they say the nails done by the girls break quickly while the ones he does are strong. He gets more tips than any other worker in the shop and when he is unavailable, ladies prefer to go back home and wait for him to come back because he gives exceptional service.

Not everyone knows how to carry themselves around Sifiso and other deaf people in the salon. Sambo said there were people who came and openly showed their contempt of being attended to by deaf people. “Some people get in here with a very negative attitude like, “This person can’t talk so what does her know?”  I make it clear that I will not stand for that. I would rather lose the customer than lose my deaf employee. I tell them these children are going to be here, they are not going anywhere. I trained them so why would I chase them away? You better get used to their presence here.

Sambo lamented that deaf people went to school but many of them just ended up going home to sit as not many people are willing to give them an opportunity to work. “The problem is the attitude society has. Most people think that when a person if deaf, that person has weak brain function but that cannot be further from the truth. They are very intelligent. Sifiso is very good at detecting anomalies like blood circulation or knots when he gives massages. If you get a foot massage from him you’ll sleep the whole day. Sometimes I think that because he doesn’t have speech, God made up for it by giving him such incredible intelligence and the ability to do things perfectly,” she said.

Sifiso now has a driving license and is the one that goes out to buy supplies for the salon and do the banking. Sambo sometimes has to force him to go home and rest when he’s under the weather because nothing stops him from wanting to come to work. He still turns up even on his day off, citing the need to make extra money for himself. After he started getting a salary, he moved out of Sambo’s house and now has his own place. She is in awe of his wisdom and what he has managed to accomplish all by himself. He says he doesn’t buy household goods on credit but by layby to avoid being in debt. “I’ve learned that there is a lot of ability in people classified as disabled,” said Sambo.

She said her next project with students from Siteki School for the Deaf is in limbo as they await sponsorship. A salon has already been set up but the children need help in the form of kits (the batch of cosmetics needed to see them through their training). “As much as I want to help, I also need additional support. I can offer my skills, but the beauty products needed for the kits are very expensive. If people or companies could just come forward and sponsor a certain number of students, we would be very happy,” she added.