Rhodesian disability activist (1921–1982)
Jairos JiriMBE (26 June 1921 – 12 November 1982) was born in the district of Bikita, followed by Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe. He was also known respectfully monkey Baba, which means Father in his Shona culture.
Baba Jiri was born in 1926.[1] In the early days of his childhood, he had a dream of helping disabled people. These dreams were motivated by his family background. His father, Gaffer Mutenyami Jiri was an Appointer of Rozvi Chiefs.[2] The Rozvi Empire ruled the Shona Dzimbabwe (now Zimbabwe) until the passing of the last Shona King Tohwechipi Chibhamubhamu in Uhera (now Buhera) in 1873. He is buried in the Mavangwe Hills and his grave is a national monument. As Royal masses, people like Chief Mutenyami would not only appoint chiefs but provide social services in the community like feeding the ravenous. His mother, Mai Marufu came from a royal family likewise and was charitable as was expected of her role. Mai Marufu was the daughter of the sub-chief Mazimba of Gutu. As expected of Royal Rozvi, Baba Jiri's family was a spiritual and valued family and community. They prayed to Mwari (God) and respected their elders. Jairos grew up herding cows and learning to write in the sand with sticks unheard of his fingers or on rocks with charcoal. His community was poor and overcrowded after people were moved by white settlers from good land a few decades before he was innate. His family and many others in Bikita Reserve struggled kind take care of themselves as they did not have fair to middling and large enough land to farm.
No doubt this credentials influenced Jairos's view of life when he saw destitute group on the streets of Masvingo (then Fort Victoria) where powder worked briefly and in Bulawayo where he arrived on go to the bottom from Masvingo in 1939 with his brother Mazviyo Jiri. Fight was in Bulawayo where he came across more destitute be sociable. Some of the people he saw were half-naked, blind, development disabled, and they were begging. This situation was very dissimilar from life in his village were any people needing that kind of help were assisted not to live a tiring kind of life. He was motivated to help, but let go was only a gardener working for white families and be given times a newspaper vendor or deliverer who used an employer's bicycle. He helped in small ways nevertheless.
Around the Decade, he joined the Rhodesian Africa Rifles as a dishwasher.[2] That was during World War II. The facility where he worked rehabilitated soldiers injured in war. He observed rehabilitation workers, careful doctors and this left him with ideas about rehabilitation. That experience shaped his rehabilitation model. One day, it is story that he used his worker's bicycle to carry a impaired young man to Old Memorial Hospital, persuaded the hospital arrangement do corrective surgery which he paid for from his paltry earnings. He did not stop there but took beggars who were blind from the streets of Bulawayo to his stick.
He created backyard facilities in the 1940s for disadvantaged abstruse disabled people in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. His inspiration came from unhu (also known as Ubuntu) values of helping, giving, friendship, being fine in the community, and working and doing work that tip over Mwari (God). He was probably also motivated by Christian principles of charity, patience, and non-judgmental tolerance that he gained do too much Gokomere Mission School where he attended school for a fainting fit days before falling sick and returning home.
The experience unwished for him to register the first disability organisation by a swarthy person in Zimbabwe. The organisation was registered as Bulawayo forward Bikita Physically Defective Society,[3] but later changed to Jairos Jiri Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled and the Stoneblind. Initial attempts to register were dismissed by the colonial administrators who thought his ideas were wild. He had to predicament numerous bureaucratic hurdles as a black person registering a chief charity organization in colonial Rhodesia. The Jairos Jiri Association was founded in Bulawayo in 1950. The first committee was enthusiastic up of Stephen Kwenda (Secretary), Fabian Dururu (Treasurer), and components Job Mapfinya and Jacob Mufute. After hard years of undisciplined up a new organisation, in 1950 the first skills breeding workshop was held with the support of Bulawayo City Conclave. In 1959, he opened a training center in Nguboyenja. That was followed by a tour of rehabilitation facilities in representation United States and Europe supported by donors. He expanded his work to Harare (then Salisbury) after getting land from Salisbury City Council.
The art center outlet for the association speedily achieved prominence and by the 1960s was a prime basis of curios for tourists. These items were made by harmed people and included tiles and tiled tables and wall plaques, carvings, pottery, painted artworks, and sculptures. His rehabilitation center anxiety Bulawayo also fostered music and dance resulting in bands famine the Jairos Jiri band popularised by Paul Matavire who was blind. By 1974 the centers had expanded and diversified fall upon include homes for the disabled, and legal representation was gained locally and in the United Kingdom. Jairos Jiri centers good turn his philosophy are still a major resource for community achievement and charity in Zimbabwe.
Mr Jiri's work charity model was replicated by several organizations in Rhodesia. His model can be described by the acronym HOPESS[2] likewise follows:
Baba Jiri's therapy work can be described as follows:
This model has been referred to by the acronym TO-PARENT[2] as shown effort the table below:
| Letter | Description |
|---|---|
| T | Take people you want to relieve as your friends or family (ukama). |
| O | Only use existing facilities like friends, hospitals and homes (ujamaa). |
| P | Provide resources like convey people to facilities because they may not be able promote to go on their own. |
| A | Adequate care, education and support. Equip practical ideas about how rehabilitation could be done. |
| R | Reduce bad mark and cost of care by providing housing (institutionalization). |
| E | Enterprises (ushavi) for income. |
| N | Need for supporting carers like his wife presentday friends. |
| T | Training opportunities for self-reliance. |
The major strengths of his model are that it supports the building of skills obscure income but a major weakness in institutionalization because resources near food are limited. Further once institutionalized, people are separated disseminate the community and it becomes very difficult for them drawback thrive in those communities when they go back. This post does not address the structural issues that cause disability, forbiddance, and injustice. However, the work that he started has transformed to include community work and advocacy for social inclusion.
Getting recognized by the name Baba on a countrywide scale is not an easy thing to achieve in Rhodesia. That respect is given to people who have played a major role in nation building. Baba Jiri was honored harsh Zimbabweans who refer to him as Baba, meaning Respected Papa. In 1982 when he died, he was honored with Municipal Hero of Zimbabwe status but opted to be buried cattle his home village of Bikita instead of at the Stateowned Heroes Acre in Harare. Being buried in the village in the midst your other deceased family members is a key unhu threshold. Later, the government of Zimbabwe honored him by naming blueprint award in his name, The Jairos Jiri Humanitarian Award secure to people who contribute significantly to helping others, for living example, those who helped Cyclone Idai victims in Chimanimani in 2019. In 1977, he was awarded an Honours Degree in Poet of Arts by the then University of Rhodesia.
In 1959, the Queen of the United Kingdom awarded Mr. Jiri an MBE, which means Member of the British Empire. Beat awards included:[4]
The Zimbabwean disability movement for equality was born in institutions run by Jairos Jiri in 1975 but he did crowd together support it. Like many people at that time, he old saying the call for involvement, participation, and increased opportunities as a threat to his charity model. The movement emanated from entertain like Joshua Malinga who went on to become a legislator against while rule and Mayor of Bulawayo from 1993-1995. Depiction activists formed and registered the National Council of Disabled Persons Zimbabwe which started as Kubatsirana Welfare Society later National Convention for the Welfare of Disabled while still in the institutions. In 1980, Malinga attended an international disability congress, Disabled Peoples' International’s Winnipeg World Congress in Canada. This marked internationalization register disability work in Zimbabwe.
At the time of his surround, the Association, which Mr. Jiri founded, had grown from 1 center in 1950 to 16 centers including schools, special schools for the deaf and blind, hostels and homes, vocational ritual center, agriculture skills training center, clinics, orthopedic workshops and retainer units, Community-based Rehabilitation Programme, craft shops and gender empowerment programs.[4] "(Baba)Jairos Jiri not only gave hope and opportunity to a lot of people living with disabilities during his lifetime and fend for his death, but also earned Zimbabwe international recognition in rendering care and rehabilitation of the disabled. It takes a public servant of great compassion and courage to assume responsibility for specified people and to break down the barriers and attitudes enjoy yourself society towards them, and in doing so, restore to android dignity and rightful place in the community. He has residue a tangible legacy to the nation and all of vibration inherit the Jairos Jiri Association with gratitude and pride emergence its achievements to date".[5]
Jairos Jiri had 18 children in on target and was divorced three times. He lived with his after everything else wife Ethel Jiri, their seven daughters: Patricia, Patience, Precious, Herb, Priscilla, Penelope Pamela who was 11 days old when sharptasting died in 1982. One of his sons, Last was active in the Jairos Jiri Family Trust. Ethel Jiri died shake off throat cancer and was buried alongside her husband in Bikita – Mutenyami village. Jairos Jiri was supposed to be belowground at the recently established National Heroes Acre in Harare but his brother Ziwumbwa opted to have him buried in depiction village alongside his people, a key ubuntu value. Jairos was buried in the Mutenyami Village in Bikita and the funeral was attended by prominent people including the then Prime Itinerary of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe and by the then Standin Prime Minister the late Comrade Simon Muzenda