ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about Chiti and his wife Sibongile, both blind, and their attachment to a Blind Peoples' Cooperative called Shungu Dzedu. Within the overall structural predicament of African poverty, compared to the able-bodied, the physically disabled are extra vulnerable to the social evils inherent, such as begging, disease and homelessness. The formation of Shungu Dzedu in the mid-1980s, however, offered much hope to the blind of Chitungwiza, particularly as the Government, and local and foreign NGOs showed a willingness to support its business activities. In the mid-1990s, two national poverty surveys were conducted, the Poverty Assessment Study Survey [PASS] by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare [MPSLSVV] and the Income and Consumption Expenditure Survey [ICES] by the Central Statistical Office [CSO]. As Chiti struggles to overcome impoverished rural roots, his lifetime quest is akin to most Zimbabweans but, unlike most, he became blind as a child, which has made the task all the more difficult.
