Okiki, a deaf person from Nairobi, has carved and painted a cross for Pope Francis. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
Losing his hearing and
speaking ability as a young man has not deterred Kenyan Karim Okiki in
his wood carving, and a symbolic sculpted cross he presented to Pope
Francis on his visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva
represents people with disabilities everywhere.
“I would like this cross to speak to
Pope Francis and the churches worldwide on the need to embrace persons
with disabilities especially the deaf and hard of hearing as part of the
church today,” said Okiki.
“Being disabled is part of God’s
diversity in creation,” explained Okiki, a 33-year-old deaf man from
Kenya, who made the wooden cross, gifted to Pope Francis 21 June during
his visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.
Three disability symbols carved on the
cross represent the blind, visually impaired, the physically impaired
and the deaf. At the centre of the cross is the sign language symbol for
the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of the church
and the society.
‘Appeal to Christians’
“I am excited to make this cross not
just a gift but an appeal to Christians to change their attitudes to
persons with disabilities as we too are created in the image of God,”
said Okiki.
After facing discrimination growing up,
he hopes the cross can remind Christians all over the world to act more
welcoming to persons with disabilities, as part of God’s creation,
something Pope Francis preaches. “When I was three-years-old, I got
sick and stayed in hospital for eight months,” explained Okiki. “By the
time I left the hospital, I had lost my ability to hear and speak. I did
not understand why I could not speak and hear like my siblings and
other children.”
Okiki was enrolled in deaf schools, not
mainstream schools “though I desired to go to the same schools with my
siblings”. He could not even attend Sunday school, which frustrated him.
“After school closed, I had nobody to
play with or talk to, as no one understood sign language. I felt
discriminated against and had low self-esteem. I still face stigma and
discrimination often today,” lamented Okiki.
After he completed his secondary school
education, life turned more positive for Okiki when he was invited to
attend a youth empowerment seminar organized by a nongovernmental
organization known as the Undugu Society of Kenya in his home village.
The organization was impressed by
Okiki’s ability to communicate through sign language and employed him as
a sign language instructor in one of its Nairobi projects.
Meeting other deaf people
“Coming to Nairobi changed my life
completely. I met other deaf people who introduced me to Emmanuel Church
for the deaf in Nairobi and I started going to church,” he explains.
When not working he would go to a carpentry shop and help.
“While there, I developed a keen
interest in carpentry and after two years of training, together with my
friend, we used our savings to open a carpentry shop in 2013. Today,
this shop is my means of livelihood and I have been able to provide
employment to other people,” said Okiki.
His carpentry shop is in a densely
populated Nairobi area and employs three young people (two men and a
woman), two of whom are deaf. One person has hearing and serves as the
link between Okiki and his customers, through sign language
interpretation.
Said Okiki, “Communication with my
customers has been the biggest challenge I face in my work. I rely on
the sign language interpreter to communicate with customers.”
In the absence of the sign language interpreter, he either writes or uses body language.
“At times when people realize I am
deaf, they think I cannot do a good job and decline to buy from me.
Others can decide to take advantage of this to pay me poorly. This pains
me, as I know I can do a good job despite my disability,” he says.
Near Okiki’s shop is the Christ is the
Answer Ministries Church. The church first welcomed Okiki as a neighbour
and he became a congregant.
‘Embraced in the church’
“Being embraced as a member in this
church, despite being deaf made me realize I have gifts which are useful
to the church and society. I gained self-confidence and later held my
wedding in this church,” he says.
Before this, due to discrimination he
had faced, he feared joining a mainstream church “and that is why I
joined a deaf church.” Okiki said.
“I would like to see a world where
persons with disabilities’ spiritual needs are met just like those of
any other person. They too thirst for spiritual nourishment but because
there is no conducive environment for them to be part of our churches,
they remain in their homes.”
Okiki, who loves dancing and playing
volleyball, is married to a deaf woman and together they have two
children who have hearing.