At age 10 and in primary six, she realised she couldn’t read clearly from the blackboard. A worrying situation that resulted in several hospital appointments and different eye treatment processes as she grew till she finally lost her sight around age 30.
Her visual impairment was caused by retinal dystrophy; genetic eye conditions that lead to decreased vision over time.
Even before losing her sight completely, she encountered many obstacles that could have prevented her from continuing her education and pursuing her dreams. However, her determination, faith in God and the support from her family and some close acquaintances set her on a different path.
Mrs Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame, 67, and a mother of three is the immediate past chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), Global Advocacy Manager (Social Inclusion), Sightsavers; Global President, International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment and Commissioner, World Council of Churches.
She has chalked up many firsts not only in Ghana but the world at large. She is the first female from Africa to be elected to chair the UNCRPD, the first African to be elected as the Global President of the International Council of People with Visual Impairment and the first visually impaired person to earn master’s degrees from both the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture.
For over four decades, she has volunteered for and led different organisations and groups that advocate disability and gender issues.
A sad encounter
Last Tuesday, when The Mirror spoke to her at her office in Accra, she recounted how some depressing comments by some distant relatives who found out she had been enrolled at the School for the Blind, Akropong-Akuapem, after completing Form Five challenged her.
“So by age 14, I had changed spectacles several times and couldn’t read all textbooks even with spectacles on. From Form Two, which was around age 14 to 17, I went to school with limited reading capacity. I couldn’t read and depended on friends during study groups and family when I was home. That is how I finished Form Five. Because reading was a challenge, I chose the Science option forgetting that practical sessions would be more challenging. I remember there was one exercise in which we had to cut the thigh of a cockroach, draw and label it. During chemistry, I couldn’t see the colours,” she said.
She recounted that there were many instances when she had to be out of school for weeks for medical treatment, but for the intervention of a teacher who gave her hand lenses, which enlarged prints, she wouldn’t have sat for her final exam in Form Five.
When the results were released, she had two credits, two passes and two fails. One of her uncles suggested that she enrolled at the School for the Blind to learn braille reading and typing.
“So I come from Akropong and spent some of my formative years in the town so I had relatives there. I was named after a queenmother of the town so the traditional natives, which include my distant relatives, called me “Ohemea Foriwaa”.
One day, I was by the roadside and three of the women who knew me met me and asked what I was doing there. When I told them I was a student there, they broke down. They made comments like, “They thought I had a bright future” and other comments that I don’t want to recollect. I left them crying and feeling hopeless,” she narrated.
Aunty Getty, as she is commonly referred to, said while she spent the following days worrying about the comments from the women, she was also determined to prove them wrong and God sent her someone just in time to assist her.
Unknown to her, one of the teachers who supervised her Oral English exam at the Ghana Secondary School noticed her challenge and discussed it with his students at the Wenchi Secondary School, one of the first secondary schools in Ghana that admitted visually impaired students.
“This young lady, the late Ms Grace Preko, who was touched by her teacher’s narration wished she met me. Unlike today where we easily communicate through phones, then, it was difficult and I had completed school so she couldn’t contact me through the school.
“Thankfully, when Grace enrolled at the Teacher’s Training College in Akropong, she heard someone who had completed secondary school had been admitted to the School For The Blind. She came to check up only to realise I was the same person her teacher spoke about.”
“I still have a mental image of her; she was fair, hair well plaited, well-spoken and neat. She became a friend who understood what it meant to be blind. I looked up to her and aspired to be a teacher too.
“I applied to the Teacher’s Training College after a year at the School For The Blind and got admission. Grace was very supportive, she taught me techniques like using cassettes to record lessons and because we were doing common subjects, there were some subjects that she already had recordings of,” she said.
Advocacy
Mrs Fefoame completed the Presbyterian Training College in May 1979 earning a Post-Secondary Teacher’s Certificate, which served as the foundation for her journey in higher learning and later, advocacy on disability issues.
She had gone ahead to pursue a Diploma in Special Education, College of Special Education; a Bachelor’s degree in education (Special Education) from the University College of Education, two master's degrees and many other courses from international organisations.
Going through these different schools as a visually impaired person came with many challenges but her resolve to succeed and the willingness of some leaders in these institutions to accommodate her needs fuelled her on.
She taught in mainstream schools and later in special schools, but her work in advocacy started by volunteering for the Ghana Association for the Blind.
She has been very active in local, national and international advocacy for persons with disabilities over the years, and has led many policies, programme development and capacity-building programmes in social development.
She is grateful to her mentors, family and her husband, Mr John Vital Fefoame, who have been her pillar throughout.
Raising children as a visually impaired mother, she admitted, was not easy, as there were instances when she could not tell if her children were in harm’s way.
She was particularly grateful to her husband who had on many occasions stepped in to take care of the family (when the children were young) as her schedule involved a lot of travelling and also accompanying her to many of her international assignments.
Mrs Fefoame continues to advocate accessibility in terms of environment, information, communication and transportation for persons with disabilities.
“There are accessibility standards that we have developed together with the government, there are gradients and rules on how humps are made but we don’t go according to them. We want braille displays, sign language interpreters and an environment that makes life easier for persons with disabilities,” she said.
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Sad