“Stutterers are humiliated”

Today is the International Stuttering Awareness Day. Pacifique Mahoro, the chairman of the Burundi Stuttering Association is concerned that stutterers are not respected in school, at work and even in their household.-By Lorraine Josiane Manishatse

Pacifique Mahoro(right), the chairperson of the Stuttering Association ©Iwacu

Pacifique Mahoro indicates that when he was a pupil, he faced many problems. “My teachers would write me up as absent whereas I was in classroom. But I was not able to respond when they called my name. Other pupils used to respond with ‘present’ when the teacher called their names; I couldn’t pronounce the letter ‘p’ at the beginning of a word. Unfortunately my name starts with ‘p’. In short, I could not even pronounce my own name”, he explains.

“I remember that, when I was in secondary school, I would fail my oral exams. I was not able to recite a poem because of my handicap”, he deplores. Some pupils abandon their studies because they are afraid to speak up publicly.
He states that even today stuttering pupils face problems, as there is no law to protect them. Stutterers are humiliated at work when their employers mistreat them because they can’t express themselves.

Pacifique Mahoro asks parents and teachers to support stutterers. “Cancel oral exams for stuttering pupils”, he says. “And parents should help them overcome the fear of speaking publically.”
He recommends the Burundi Government considers the problems stutterers face and adopt adequate measures to support them. “The fact that we have trouble speaking does not impact our intelligence. We need support to exploit our intellectual capacity”, he concludes.