Visually impaired Mfanufikile Bhengu said it was important for anyone living with a disability to have something meaningful to do every day.
Bhengu weaves baskets at the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society.
He was speaking to the Independent on Saturday to encourage people to join the Eye Can Walk event on September 14 to “allow people to understand us better”.
The event is a 5km or 10km walk, starting and finishing at Kings Park Athletic Stadium.
Blind and Deaf Society president Veetha Sewkuran said people of all ages were invited to join the walk, aimed at creating eye care awareness.
Bhengu, originally from the Mandane area on the South Coast and now living in Durban, said he had not been born blind but had completely lost his sight when he was 9 years old.
“I was in denial when I lost my eyesight. I thought my life was over. I kept on going to school and I would just sit there and not do anything,” he said.
Bhengu said his teachers had to write a letter to his family to say he must stop going to school because it was not safe for him to walk alone.
He said he gradually began to accept that he could no longer see. His family played a major role in his healing journey.
“There are other blind people in my family so it was easy for my cousins to support me,” said Bhengu.
He said he had been weaving baskets for 10 years and enjoyed waking up in the morning to do something meaningful and earn a living to support his family. Bhengu has two children and “seven people who are dependent on me”.
Bhengu said said people living with disabilities often faced challenges because society did not understand them. Some people even stepped on their folding white canes which were expensive to replace and hard to find.
Sewkuran said the society had different projects to empower visually or hearing impaired people such as teaching them computer literacy and sewing.
One of its big projects for next year included an adult literacy centre and culinary school for which it was trying to raise funds.
Sewkuran said it was crucial to empower people with skills so they were able to take care of themselves and be able to have families of their own.
“The disability grant is not enough for a young person to start a family but they also would like to get married and have children,” she said.
Among the things the society teaches people when they first get to the centre is how to take public transport and how to count money.