By FELIX SILWIMBA-
IN this article I narrate the story of Kenneth Habalu who is director at APTERS, an enterprise that specializes in recycling cardboard and other paper products into specialised chairs for children with neurological deficits.
Mr Habalu was born on October 24, 1964 in Choma District of Southern Zambia.
His first name I suppose expresses the happiness and jubilation that surrounded his birth. He is the sixth born in a family of 10.
At the age of three, he contracted poliomyelitis that left him with a permanent physical disability in his legs.
Education and skills training
Mr Habalu started school at Nachibanga Primary School in Choma in 1972, his education was punctuated with periods of withdraw due to the unfriendly environment in long distances he had to cover.
At one time, he had to live with is elder brother in Monze and Kafue for his primary education before entering boarding school in Mkushi.
Upon completion of his education, he enrolled for a tailoring course at Kabwata skills Centre under the Lusaka City Council social welfare department.
He underwent training in Appropriate Paper Technology under Mrs Archie Hinscliffe in 1991.
Since then, he has only worked with APTERS rising through the ranks to become its Director.
Mr Habalu enjoys his work because it is not just about making a product of a specialised nature, but also involves counselling mothers of children with physical disabilities especially those from low income backgrounds.
Given all the required support, he would like to expand the service to the rest of the country. He feels it is important to actively involve parents of children with disabilities in income generating activities that can make them economically independent.
With the support of diplomats’ spouses and international women, rotary club of Lusaka they have started on the expansion the building to meet all the various needs of providing a comprehensive service to children with disabilities and their caregivers.
Challenges
Transport, most of the work force are persons with physical disabilities and face serious challenges in reporting for work as they depend on non-user friendly public transport system.
Unlike in the past when UTH management considered then under its staff bus management, the shift in policy from providing transport to workers by paying transport allowances negatively affected him and his colleagues.
Conditions of service and salaries
Since this is a self-help project and being dependent on sales, there is little he can do to adjust salaries in line with the recommendations of Government.
Mr Habalu and his co-workers cannot have access to loans because the organisation is managed on a charity model.
Way forward
Attempts have been done before to have donors and well-wishers buy special chairs on behalf of the children.
This approach has always placed the enterprise in a weaker negotiating position to charge economic prices for the products.
Lasting solution however, lies in the Government through the Agency for Persons with Disabilities coming in to buy off the special chairs at economic prices.
Lessons learnt
Mr Habalu could not attain his early childhood dreams to a higher education  because he faced barriers of accessing education facilities in terms of the distance, lack of mobility aids and adequate financial support to meet the extra challenges of disability.
However, he persevered in life and he now smells success.
In line with service provision by the local authority, I wish to underscore the importance of community welfare halls or training facilities that in the years before the 90s immensely benefited vulnerable groups.
(The author is Director General Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Post Polio Person, Independent Living activist)