Text only
Font size
Colours 
Email page
Print page
Site map
Grace Opio
It began an ordinary working day, buying and selling beans and sesame, for Grace in Uganda. The vehicle she was travelling in stopped on a landmine which exploded beneath them - Grace’s left leg was blown off and her right leg badly burned.
Usually a busy woman Grace found herself unable to work and with nothing to do she just sat - all day, every day – for five years……
“That’s how I got fat. When I joined the Lira Women’s Association I started to feel that I wasn’t alone, there were lots of other people with so many different disabilities. What I saw was that they respected each other".
“Then my life turned in a different direction. I learnt that although I had become disabled, I could not just sit and live on other people’s money. They showed me that I needed to continue and earn my living.”
In 2004, with a loan from the Lira District Women’s Association, Grace set up her own business making and selling sambusas (samosas). Grace’s confidence has grown and she is now chairperson of the Landmine Survivors Group and since 1998 has been representing disabled people as a local councillor.
“At the council I am able to bring together disabled people and non-disabled people. I talk to disabled people about the difficulties they face.
It is important that we are here and that people hear us. It brings disabled people together when they know they can be heard - before we never even came together. I give my own example when we talk, anybody can be able bodied today, but become disabled tomorrow.
When I lost my leg, most of my friends ran away from me, they no longer came to see me - they were afraid I would want money from them.
The fear of meeting someone who is disabled has changed because people see us more often now. We don’t just sit at home we are active around the town and in the villages. I have able bodies friends like my neighbour, but my friends are mainly disabled people, some are blind, some are deaf – we are all together – we can feel positive that things are improving.”
(case study: Geoff Sayer)
Grace