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Felix Simulunga Zambia My life changing story I was born in Mbala, in the northern part of Zambia, in 1970 on the 20 th of November in a polygamous family of 17 people i.e. a father, two mothers and 14 children. My father was a mechanic working for Mechanical Services Branch (retired in 1990) and my mother was and is still a marketeer selling things like tomato and other vegetables on a very small scale. Both my father and mother are of a humble educational background. I became a polio victim at the age of 2 years which has left my lower limbs physically paralysed for the rest of my life. With lack of devices like crutches and wheelchairs, I used to craw on the ground to move from one place to another. My disability received a lot of mixed reactions in my family with my mother taking more blame for my state. I was regarded as a person who was going to be dependent on my parents for the rest of my life. My father never thought that it was meaningful to educate a disabled person. Once in a while, we could gather as a family and my father would start narrating what he expected of each child - to get educated and when it was my turn he My life changing story Page 1 My humble parents home in Mbala – where I was born and brought up with the rest of the family. Both my father and two mothers My father (right) with his My mum (right) and step mum (left) enjoying the local brew at home in Mbala

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Felix SimulungaZambia

My life changing story

I was born in Mbala, in the northern part of Zambia, in 1970 on the 20 th of November in a polygamous family of 17 people i.e. a father, two mothers and 14 children. My father was a mechanic working for Mechanical Services Branch

(retired in 1990) and my mother was and is still a marketeer selling things like tomato and other vegetables on a very small scale. Both my father and mother are of a humble educational background.

I became a polio victim at the age of 2 years which has left my lower limbs physically paralysed

for the rest of my life. With lack of devices like crutches and wheelchairs, I used to craw on the ground to move from one place to another.

My disability received a lot of mixed reactions in my family with my mother taking more blame for my state. I was regarded as a person who was going to be dependent on my parents for the rest of my life. My father never thought that it was meaningful to educate a disabled person.

Once in a while, we could gather as a family and my father would start narrating what he expected of each child - to get educated and when it was my turn he could look at me with sympathy and say "as for you my

son, don't worry. Since you can't go to school, we will ensure that we look after you till our death". This remark, though innocently made, was as a result of the general notion that people

My life changing story Page 1

My humble parents home in Mbala – where I was born and brought up with the rest of the family. Both my father and two mothers are still alive

My father (right) with his brother

My mum (right) and step mum (left) enjoying the local brew at home in Mbala

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have against persons with disabilities as people who cannot do anything in life for themselves apart from being cared for.However, despite this background, my mother - with her humble education - saw the need to have me educated and, with protest from my father, decided to send me to school. In 1978, after undergoing an operation on my lower limbs, I started my Grade one (1) at Chileshe Chepela Wansongo School for the Disabled in Kasama in the Northern part of Zambia. My hard work at school saw me by-pass Grade 4 and went straight to Grade 5. I later went to Grade eight (8) at Kasama Boys Secondary School where I did my junior secondary school education i.e. from Grade 8 up to Grade 9.

I completed my senior secondary school education in 1988 at Mungwi Secondary Technical School with good results. In 1989 I went into the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Zambia (UNZA). My aim was to major in Mathematics but a year later I failed to go through to the next stage after failing in two subjects. The failing was because of the inhibitive architectural barriers in the University Campus which rendered my mobility from one place to the other very difficult. A few months before I left the University of Zambia, two disabled colleagues of mine – Chola Kafwabulula (now CEO at Food Reserve Agency) and Dr. Felix Silwimba (now Director General at Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities) helped me secure my first wheelchair courtesy of the Finnish government.

After leaving UNZA, I stayed with my brother in Chingola for three years from 1990 to 1993 after which I enrolled for a three year Diploma Course in Computer Studies at Evelyn Hone College which I finished in 1995.

Immediately after finishing my course I was employed by an organization calling itself Hands Ministries (Z) Ltd as a Computer Instructor. In 1997 I left Hands and

worked on temporal basis with a programme under the Zambia Federation of the Disabled (ZAFOD) called Advocacy And Action Zambia (AAAZ) whose major aim was to advocate for the implementation of the United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.

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During the Hone Graduation Ceremony where I received my Diploma in Computer

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I eventually joined ZAFOD itself as Administrative Secretary in June 1998 on a two-year renewable contract. Two years later, I was promoted as Chief Executive of the organization when the position fell vacant and held that position up to December 2010 when I resigned to go and manage my private business namely a private school – Simfex Academy – which I own and run.My work at the helm of the Zambia Federation of the Disabled was very challenging and also interesting. At the time I took the position of Chief Executive of ZAFOD, I was the only employee in the organization and realizing that for us to respond effectively and efficiently to the many challenges facing the organization, we had to have sufficient resources.

With the help of many partners such as POWER International of UK, Finnish Disabled Peoples International Development Association (FIDIDA), Action on Disability and Development (ADD), Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD), Norwegian International Aid Agency (NORAD), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Irish Aid and other partners, ZAFOD grew from 1 person in 2000 to 25 persons in 2010 at the time I left the organization;

Together with my colleagues we managed to increase the number of projects that ZAFOD was running as well as its annual income from the initial amount of US$20,000 to US$500,000 due to successful project proposal formulation and implementation;

Also taking into consideration ZAFOD’s aim of alleviating the mobility problems being experienced by persons with physical disabilities, I managed to mobilize more than 100 wheelchairs and distributed them country-wide to various individuals with disabilities;

I spearheaded, for the first time in the history of Zambia, the participation of persons with disabilities in the 2001 Electoral process, review of the Electoral Act as well as formulation of the Fifth National Development Plan;

Through ZAFOD advocacy programmes, under my planning, implementation and supervision, we saw for the first time in the history of Zambia politicians and other stakeholders openly talk about issues of persons with disabilities at many fora with some political parties including in their manifestos and constitutions issues on disability.

I led a process of formulating a National Plan of Action (NPA) on disability in Zambia using participatory methodologies involving a team of 64 field workers in an exercise that covered a total of 22 districts in all the 10 provinces of Zambia with wide consultations involving 1,655 people from all walks of life.

I also coordinated a team of professionals from the University of Zambia Institute for Economic and Social Research (INESOR), Central Statistical Office (CSO), SINTEF Health Research Foundation in Norway and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities in Zambia in carrying out a national-wide study on the Living Conditions among Persons with Disabilities.

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I was lead Consultant in the inclusion of Disability and Development issues in the Zambian Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) 2006 to 2010 where for the first time in the history of the nation, disability issues became part of the national agenda and were allocated a sum of ZMK167.9 billion for implementation.

I was among a group of 3 persons with disabilities that represented Disabled Peoples Organizations at the 500 plus membership National Constitutional Conference in 2007 to 2010 that sat to review the Zambian Constitution with a view to coming up with a new one.From the period 1999 to 2010, I also traveled to a number of countries within and outside Africa representing the organization I was working for and also sometimes as a representative of the Zambian government on various disability and development issues.

Some of the countries I visited included the United States of America – Independent Living Conference, Swaziland – Leadership Training Workshop, Lesotho – Small Scale Enterprises for Economic Development Programme, Sweden – Conference on Electoral Access Issues, Zimbabwe – Managers’ Workshop and also the Assessment on Situation of Persons with Disabilities, Uganda – Assessment on Situation of Persons with Disabilities, Japan & Thailand – Study Tour on how to Mainstream Disability Issues, Botswana – Workshop on Youth Development and also Workshop on streamlining a SEED Programme in Southern Africa, Britain – Resource mobilization on disability and development in Zambia, Mozambique – Presentation of Zambian experiences in the Mozambique National Plan of Action, South Africa – International Conference on Disability and Rehabilitation as well as Resource mobilization on disability and development in Zambia and also visited the USA as a representative of the Zambian government on the formulation and monitoring of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As I was building the capacity of ZAFOD and successfully implementing its various programmes, I also did not lose sight of developing my private interests where I could fall back on at a time I decided to leave employment. Through my salaries, allowances, consultancies and other business

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Felix with 2 brothers & 2 nephews enjoying their stay at a 1 roomed house on the plot he bought.

The Simulunga Residence built with support from POWER International of UK

Felix with 2 brothers & 2 nephews enjoying their stay at a 1 roomed house on the plot he bought.

Felix – at Bleinheim Palace in the UKFelix – at Blenheim Palace in the UK

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initiatives, I managed to secure a plot in the Chelstone area in 2004 on which I slowly started building my first house.

On a personal level, POWER International came to my rescue through individual interventions from the then Chairperson – Robin Heal, the Chief Executive Sarah Hodge and other people in POWER International who contributed significantly to the construction of my own house where am currently living and at peace with myself since rentals of accessible housing in Lusaka were becoming out of my reach and unsustainable for me and my family.

POWER International also went ahead and brought me independent living through the acquisition of a motorized wheelchair which has enabled me to be versatile in the way of doing things from 2006 to date.

After building the residential house where we currently stay, we still remained with a big yard. Having tested the joy of building, I embarked on building another house in 2006 which I completed in 2008. This is a block of 7 rooms one of which I converted into my office. In 2008 I

made a decision to start a school, and with advice from the Ministry of Education, I registered Simfex Academy with the Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA). In 2010, I opened the business bank account. In January 2011 I advertised for jobs of teachers and general workers as well as enrolments for school places from Nursery School to Grade Four. On 10th January 2011, the school was opened to the public with 20 pupils and 3 teachers.

At the same time, and this time with loans from Barclays Bank, Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission and later with Investrust Bank Zambia Plc, I started building the third house comprising of 8 classrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 strong room, 2 store rooms and a block of 12 toilets.

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The Simulunga Residence built with support from POWER International of

UK

Felix - with his son Teza - enjoying the fruits of

parenthood with the help of a motorized wheelchair

donated by POWER International

The first group of pupils and teachers

The first staff at Simfex Academy Pupils playing in clean environment

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During the same year, the gravel road from Great East Road going towards Kalimba Farms and along where our school is located was tarred by the Zambian government. This move improved the value and accessibility of our place and attracted more pupils to our school forcing us to start offering educational services from Pre-School to Grade 6 in 2011. The enrolments increased to 97 pupils by the end of 2011.

During the same year, we started offering evening tuitions from Grade 1 up to Grade 12. Our teaching staff also increased from 3 to 7.In 2012 we went up to Grade 7 and all the 7 pupils who went through our tutorship passed their Grade 7 exams with flying colours. In 2013 we opened classes for Grades 8 and 9 and currently we have pupils who attend our regular day time classes from Pre-School to Grade 9 numbering more than 250 and those who attend evening tuitions numbering more than 100. We have a total of 13 fully qualified teachers ranging from certificate to degree holders. We also have 3 administrators and 4 general workers. We also have volunteers. All Simfex Academy staff are running their own homes and are looking after big families.

Resources allowing, we have plans of going all the way up to Grade 12 and also offering skills in various ventures such as tailoring and designing, computers, carpentry and bricklaying, among others.

As far as personal development is concerned, I am studying for a Diploma in Entrepreneurship and Business Management (DEBM) by Distance Education offered by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India in collaboration with Luanshya Teachers Vocational Training College. I will complete this course this November. I have also enrolled for a Bachelors Degree Programme in Arts Majoring in Public Administration with a Minor in Economics by Distance Education at the University of Zambia (UNZA). However, I am still facing serious accessibility challenges with UNZA at the moment.

On the family level, I am married to a beautiful Zambian lady – Mary Tembo - and has three beautiful children, a daughter of 10 years (Niza Simulunga), a son of 5 years (Teza Simulunga) and a daughter of 3 years (Visuule Simulunga). We have been married for the past fourteen years.

In addition to the three children, my wife and I are also looking after a huge family of 15 brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews. And out of the 17 members of the family, I am among the very few that my parents look up to

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Felix (on wheelchair), Wife, Daughter & Brother at Victoria

Falls in Livingstone

The first staff at Simfex Academy

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for significant financial help. I am proud of these responsibilities as they are a proof that a person with a disability is not a useless being but that given the right empowerment we can prove to be an asset to our families and the nation as a whole.

For me to be where I am, there is a chain of people who have played a significant role in my life. Apart from my mother, father, my wife, my brothers and sisters, and those that I have mentioned earlier, others that I can quickly recall include Charles Makumba at Secondary School, Friday Kafula in College and Lango Sinkamba, Euphrasia Mbewe, Stephen Njobvu, Paradious Sakala, Elijah Ngwale, Mackenzie Mbewe, Chola Kafwabulula, Dr. Felix Silwimba, Miyoba Hamuhuma, Justine Simutowe and Emmanuel Mbita. I also pay tribute to all my members of staff at Simfex Academy for their hard work and commitment to duties without which we wouldn’t have become one of the best private schools in the Chelstone area.

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