The success story of a 52-year-old visually impaired man

Many people with health and disabilities challenges in the Ghanaian society and elsewhere would often give up in life and resort to begging.

But with the case of Ignatius Seny Seweh, a 52-year-old physically challenged person who is visually impaired is not so.

In fact, Mr Seweh has demonstrated and confirmed the statement that “Disability is Not Inability”.

Before coming into contact with Mr Seweh, a friend of mine Mr Emmanuel Akayeti who is a Broadcaster Journalist with the Bolgatanga office of the Ghana Broad Casting Cooperation told me that the visually impaired man was a poultry farm. But I challenged him which prompted him to lead me to MrSeweh’s poultry farm at the Pwalugu community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region on one Wednesday morning.

Low and behold I saw with my own eyes the 52-year visually impaired old man feeding his over 1000 birds being all layers. As I stood watching him with keen interest when he feeds his poultry one thing just dawned on me and that is the phrase "Disability is Not Inability”.

His zeal in his trades also made me recollect about some disabled persons in the world who contributed to the world economy. Imagine the world of science without Stephen Hawking, the Olympics without Tanni Grey Thompson and the horrendous thought of television without Stephen Fry.

The works of these extraordinary people proved that disability does not mean inability and that everyone can contribute in his or her own way to community development and the nation as a whole. The only thing that must be considered and worked at is the mindset that once, one is physically challenged, he or she cannot contribute to society.

Narrating to this Writer about his predicament, the 52–year-old visually impaired man told me he was born to one Peter Apuri and Mary Emile Pealore from the Nayagnia community in the Kassena Nankana Municipal of the Upper East Region both of blessed memory.

He said born and raised up in Tamale of the Northern Region, he attended the Bagabaga Junior High School and later gained admission to the Tamale Technical Institute, now Tamale Technical University to pursue agriculture engineering intermediary and diploma respectively and completed in 1996.

Mr Seweh stated that after obtaining his diploma certificate in Agricultural Engineering and doing one year National Service, he was gainfully employed by the Ghana Cotton Ginnery and posted to Wa in Upper West Region in 1987 as a mechanic.

He stressed that by dent of his hard work at the Wa office, he was selected among six workers to partner with a Consultant from the United States of America to establish the Cotton Ginnery at Pusu-Namoo in the Upper East Region.

He noted that upon completing the work before the scheduled time the Senior Management of the Company decided to maintain him and others at the Bolgatanga office to see to the fullest operation of the new set up.

Married to Madam Salima Yahaya with three issues, Mr Seweh told me that he lost his sight in 2007 whilst still in active service with the office of the Upper East Cotton Ginnery until the Company folded up in 2011 under the regime of the later President Atta Mills of blessed memory.

Probing further to find out how he lost his sight, the visually impaired person told me it was one afternoon when he decided to drive his own private car to his hometown at Navrongo when the accident occurred.

He indicated that he was initially admitted at a hospital in Bawku in the Upper East Region where the first, second, third and fourth eye surgery operations were performed upon him leading to him losing his sight.

The visually impaired man who stated that the government did not pay the end of service benefits of the workers after the Pusu Namoo Cotton Ginnery where he was working folded up, indicated that despite his physically challenged nature, he managed to organize his colleagues from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions to go on hunger strike which drew the attention of the government at that time to pay the end of service benefits of the workers.

“Before becoming visually impaired I was the National Secretary of the General Staff Association and was very abreast with industrial relations issues. Through this rich experience, I managed to organize the workers to go on hunger strike which led to President Atta Mills to invite us to Accra and assured us that we will be paid which he ensured that he did. I want to commend the media for the role you played. I believed but for the media, nobody would have heard of our plight. It was even reported by the BBC that a blind man being me Mr Seweh led the strike”, he intimated.



Continuing the discussions with me about his past experience, Mr Seweh said he decided to go and peruse diploma in education at the University of Education, Winneba after the Cotton Ginnery got folded up and when he completed he applied for a job at the Ghana Education Service where he was turned down.

“I went and did diploma in education at the University of Education, Winneba and when I completed I decided to apply to the GES for a job but I wasn’t offered a place. I decided that if the state will not employ me I must create the employment for myself as I have already the passion for poultry farm. My father used to do it and I have learnt a bit from the trade”, the visually impaired man told me.

He said he is able to make profit from the poultry farm to make a leaving and indicated that though things are not all that rosy he would not cheapen himself to anybody who would want to look down upon him but would welcome support from genuine persons.

“The poultry farm is paying and I don’t leave on charity. I, however, don’t reject any assistance to enable me expand my poultry farm. I don’t just want anybody to look down upon me as a physically challenged person. I detest that”, he stressed.

The 52-year-old visually impaired who had employed a boy to assist him on the farm told me that one of the major challenges he encountered in establishing the poultry farm was that when he applied for a loan from a bank he was turned down but never gave up in establishing his trade.

Attempted suicide by the visually impaired man

He told me that when the predicament happened to him and was he left alone in the room because his wife and children had to go to work and school, he decided one hot afternoon to end up his life by taking a bottle of insecticide to drink.

He indicated that when he attempted to drink the bottle of insecticide, he heard the voice of one his friends called him and asked him to prepare so that he could pick him his with motorbike to town to refresh himself instead of always being indoors.

“This saved my life and broke the culture of silence as my friend will always come and pick me to town and offices to interact with people. I then begin to realize that the Almighty God has begun the process of re-integrating me into society”, Mr Seweh indicated.

Mr Seweh, however, told me that what actually defines his moment of life was when he saw two visually impaired kids at Akropong Akropong School for the Blind charting and running to the dining hall and later on managed to swerve the pillars that were in front of them.

“I then told myself if these two kids who have a long way to grow and are not bordered about their predicaments what about me who have grown and may have some few years to leave on this earth. That period became a defining moment for my life”, the 52–year-old visually impaired stated.

Lessons to learn from the 52-year-old visually impaired

What lessons can be learnt from Mr Seweh?

He did not give up in life like many other physically challenged persons would have done. Apart from him leading the above mentioned hunger strike, he defied all orders and attended and completed tertiary education. He was not bordered after the Ghana Education Service refused to offer him employment.

To quote from him “I decided that if the State will not employ me I must create the employment for myself as I have already the passion for poultry farm. My father used to do it and I have learnt a bit from the trade”. He quickly organized himself and went into poultry farming to make a living and even employed somebody to aid him on the farm.

To sum it all, it is very important for all physically challenged persons irrespective of their situations to learn from Mr Seweh and also establish some trades to make living for themselves.

There is also the urgent need for government and other stakeholders to support physically challenged persons like MrSewehwho had begun something on his own to grow.