I have the pleasure of volunteering for The Dorothy Springer Trust (DST), it is a charity I care deeply about. DST is a small NGO that works with students with disability in Sierra Leone and offers them training in ICT skills. Many students have graduated these courses and have gone on to achieve well within job roles requiring such skills and DST is recognised for its professional approach to making workplaces in the country more inclusive. In Sierra Leone, and to be honest most countries around the world, people with disabilities tend to be judged on, or recognised for, those disabilities before they are seen for the person they. It can become an effort to get people to see beyond the disability. As DST graduate Osman Kamara says:

“I don’t want people to just see a blind guy. I want them to see a guy working hard. Someone who is able and not disabled.”

Osman, a DST graduate and volunteer.

On a recent visit to Freetown I took portraits of current students and DST graduates and I wanted to try to capture their personality rather than their disability! There students are not victims. They are empowered individuals working hard to better their future. Many of them are now skilled professionals using the ICT skills they gained through the DST training. Ultimately some of these students are also now friends, people I admire and that inspire me.

“In the future I want to read journalism at university. I am not disabled everywhere! I have talent!”
(Kadiatu, a 2015 DST student)

“I had never learnt about computers before but now I can have equal opportunities with the able-bodied”
(Saffiatu, 2015 DST student)

“I am independent and self-reliant”
(Eleanor, a 2015 DST student)

“If I have the opportunity in the future I would like to do my PHd”
(Henry, DST graduate)

“The DST course served as a stepping stone to where I am today. I am using my ICT skills daily in my job”
(PC 15285 Sheka, DST graduate)

“I have gained knowledge in ICT and that means I am now empowered”
(Mariatu, a 2015 DST student)

“I am happy as I have made a change in my own life!
(Marie, a 2015 DST student)