*📰 Betty Jiri, a forgotten disability rights activist* *🔗 ᴠɪᴇᴡ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴏᴜʀ ᴡʜᴀᴛꜱᴀᴘᴘ ᴄʜᴀɴɴᴇʟ ꜰᴏʀ ᴅᴀɪʟʏ ɴᴇᴡꜱ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇꜱ*👇 https://chat.whatsapp.com/JYwP6k4mXPI7NnpMWYiBJ7 HERS is a tale that drips raw with the true meaning of the word irony. How else can one describe, let alone believe that the widow of the country’s revered disability champion and National Hero — Jairos Jiri — Mrs Betty Jiri is living far from the opulence and comfort that the couple’s name should be associated with. She has somehow been forgotten and maybe like many, whose lives shaped society but are seldom talked about, she will be remembered the day she departs earth. Jairos Jiri is synonymous with a lifetime of advocacy for disability rights in Zimbabwe, representing a significant milestone in the country’s fight for the welfare of persons with disabilities (PWD). The couple shared a vision and established numerous Jairos Jiri Centres across Zimbabwe. They made history as the first black individuals to register a charity in what was then Rhodesia, solidifying their legacy when they married legally in 1963. It is sardonic and painful however that Mrs Jiri, now aged 86, now stashes her belongings in a single room at the Nguboyenja-based Jairos Jiri Centre in Bulawayo, where she tearfully but eloquently chronicled how she found a passion for caring for PWDs and the work she put in to ensure the success of the centres. “I am Betty Jiri, the wife of Jairos Jiri, I started this work when I lived in Mzilikazi suburb. My husband used to work for H Gordon’s, where he used to care for disabled children belonging to white people. We met in Mzilikazi at a home where I lived and cared for my sisters’ children. So, he would come home when he was off duty and one day I saw a young man crossing the road, but he was crawling. I was touched as he was disabled,” she said. That young man that a young Mrs Jiri saw was the late national hero Cde Joshua Malinga, who was a Special Advisor to the President, who was the first person the Jiris took into their Mzilikazi home to take care of, as they had realised their passion for caring for PWDs. “I would help him, feed him and ensure he was well kept. I grew vegetables in our backyard to feed my children, together with Malinga and many others whom I later took in. I then went to Cde Joshua Nkomo in Luveve and told him that we wanted to care for children in our home. “He then gave us a letter to allow us to care for the less privileged. “We announced in the newspaper that we were caring for people with disabilities and the word spread around the country such that multitudes were directed to our home. They came by train and were escorted by the police,” she added. Mrs Jiri said she was still a young woman who had a great passion, such that those who came to her residence were shocked that she had a huge heart. Over time, the numbers swelled and space became limited. She approached the City Council leadership then and they allocated her a big workshop in Makokoba. They started sewing shoes, making coat hangers, basketry and many other crafts while sleeping in the workshop. “I would cook for them using a fire and feed them. I still have the pot I started cooking for them in. Musician Dorothy Masuka would pass by and one time she advised me to put postcards around the city, and she came and sang at Stanley Square to raise money for the charity. “Again, the space in Makokoba grew small and Council told me they had found a bigger space across the road; it was not called Nguboyenja back then. I was shown the space and loved it, they helped me lay the first brick of my house and office of what is now Jairos Jiri in Bulawayo today,” added Mrs Jiri. She said beds, mattresses and various other essentials were donated to her via the city council and the centre opened its doors to the greater public in 1958, fulfilling her dream with Mr Jiri of taking care of the disabled. Mrs Jiri, over the years, travelled around Zimbabwe, engaging traditional dance groups to perform at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, where they had secured an exhibition stand as a way to lure people to see the works of those abled differently. “This is how I worked over the years; I would take old clothes discarded and sew them back to life and give the less privileged in the community, as I was growing up in Bikita. That is who I was from a tender age. “I would carry disabled people on my back as we would go to church so that we all arrive at the same time than leaving them to crawl on the rough streets. It was a calling, if I must say,” said Mrs Jiri. She said when the Ngoboyenja centre was opened, Mr Jiri resigned from his job at H Gordons and they worked together and grew their philanthropic works. Asked how the centre was named Jairos Jiri, she had this to say. “I did not have an identity document then, so we used my husband’s name to register the organisation, that is how it was back in the day, women were second to men, so we called it Jairos Jiri Centre,” she said. The name is used across the estimated 40 centres the couple opened around Zimbabwe. In Silobela, in the Midlands Mrs Jiri said she built a pole and dagga shelter for elderly women who had no one to care for them, where she gave them space to sleep and cook their relish while she provided sadza for them. Mrs Jiri is perhaps the first woman to establish an old people’s home in Zimbabwe. Asked how many centres the couple had, Mrs Jiri, from the top of her head, could remember a few. “Victoria Falls, Nguboyenja, Silobela, Southerton Harare, Mukuvapasi in Rusape, Kadoma, Gweru, Luveve Carpentry, Mufakose, Mutare, Zvishavane, Masvingo, Gokwe and Gwanda is what I remember. The list is there, where there are all the properties we opened,” she said. Mr and Mrs Jiri were also beneficiaries of other houses, plots and farms that were donated to them by well-wishers. Unfortunately, while the Jiris have a decorated life of philanthropy, Mrs Jiri is living short of the glory that is expected following their good works around Zimbabwe. “After the death of Mr Jiri in 1982 he was awarded National Hero Status, but the family refused and he was buried in Bikita. Former President Robert Mugabe emphasised that we must keep the legacy of Mr Jiri alive and also ensure that the family is well kept. “But after the death, all the property we owned was taken away from me, I found the Bulawayo home emptied of all our belongings, they took our cows, goats and sheep from the farm in Gwatemba. Even my children’s clothes were taken away,” she said. Mrs Jiri said she struggled to keep the family afloat and did various menial jobs. “I went back to Cde Joshua Nkomo and told him my story, he was a close family friend. He tried to assist me. I returned to Nguboyenja but I was barred from entering a place I built with my own hands, I was given an eviction order. “We lived at the gate because the manager who was here refused us entry. There were court documents that were there that barred me from staying here. Eventually, I was given a single room where I now live. It is my wish to live in a more comfortable place where I can live a peaceful life,” she said. She said it is not her wish to challenge anybody who has stripped her of her rights to occupy the house she built inside the Nguboyenja centre, nor does she want to fight for the properties that she acquired over the years with Mr Jiri. Several properties belonging to the widow have been sold fraudulently and she has not benefitted anything. Mr Jiri’s death certificate was only issued in 2010, 28 years after his death, despite his estate being registered and processed earlier. A well-wisher has pledged to construct a house for her if a residential stand is availed. Mrs Jiri has 34 grandchildren, and four of her seven children are still alive. @NyembeziMu Source : The Herald