Uruzgan: Half of Muhauddin villagers are disabled

TRINKOT (Pajhwok): The residents of Muhauddin village in the Dihrawod district of southern Uruzgan are mostly deprived of eyesight asked the government for support.

These residents said they inherited this disability from their ancestors, adding that their future generations would also inherit this disability from them too.

Hikmatullah, 30, the resident of Muhauddin village, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Our grandfather named Ghulam Rabani, we heard that he was blind thus we inherited this blindness from him.”

He added now the number of blind persons increased from 70 in the province and they suffered a lot.

“We are suffering from this blindness issue, now most of relatives cannot see each other while some are good during the day but unable to see things in the night,” he said.

Hikmatullah is the father of five children and said his two daughters and one son could not see anything and was suffering from the problems of daily life.

Mohammad Azeem, 42, is another resident of this village he also suffered from blindness over the years and have difficult life.

“People did not want to have social interaction with us even they don’t establish marriage ties with us, they humiliate us by dubbing us with blind village and other disgracing names,” he said.

Mohammad Azeem has four adult daughters at home and people refrain from establishing relationship with him because people fear their children would be also born blind.

He said five years ago his sister was married to a man in Helmand province but after she gave birth to a son her husband divorced her and now she was with his father along with her son.

Abdul Karim, another villager who is not blind, said half of their villagers were disabled and could not see.

He said the blind persons in their village were having difficult time and so far nobody reached to them for support.

He said they made personal efforts but physicians told them that inside the country their treatment was not possible.

“The international community should hear our voices and provide us treatment so that nobody in our future generations don not suffer from this issue,” he said.

Uruzgan Public Health Director Dr. Mohammadullah Rohani said: “The residents of Muhauddin village in Uruzgan who suffer from congenital problem are due to excessive marriage in their relatives. Their ability to see was down compared to other people.”

“Currently, the treatment of this illness was not possible in the country but as part of short-term solution they could avoid marriages between close relatives,” he said.

Mawlavi Manzour, the Social Affairs and Disabled Department director said that they were aware of the disability of some people in Dihrawod district.

He said 20 people from that village were registered with them and received salary from the past 20 years.

He said according to their information 70 people are disabled in Muhauddin village out of which 20 are serious who need others help in their daily activities while the remaining could see things to some extent.

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