A 30-year-old woman with hearing loss and deafness said her condition has not stopped her from following her dream of becoming a renowned baker.
Martha Rengura from Rundu shared her journey with New Era on how she paved her way to success, despite the challenges she experiences daily due to her condition.
Rengura’s hearing impairment was detected when she was a toddler. Hearing loss is the reduced ability to hear sounds in the same way as other people. Deafness occurs when a person cannot understand speech through hearing, even when sound is amplified.
At the time, doctors explained to her parents that she was unlikely to ever communicate clearly or enrol in a ‘normal’ school.
Growing up, she said she found it difficult to accept she was disabled until she was enrolled in the School for the Hearing-impaired in Windhoek.
“Living with such a disability was hard because people would treat you differently. The early years of my childhood were quite challenging because I still didn’t understand why I was different from the rest of my peers. However, as I grew, I became self-aware and started to fully understand my condition and how I could learn to live with it,” she explained.
After failing grade 10, Rengura started to think about how she could support her family financially.
Striving to also create a better future for her daughter, she had to find a way to generate income. In 2014, she started a baking business, using the tools she had at home.
Rengura began producing cakes and other baked goods, although it was a hustle to find people to buy her products.
Determined to get the word out, she started marketing her business on social media platforms, and also getting people close to her to taste her products. “Although communication remains one of the biggest challenges I experience to date, especially with potential customers, I am glad to have a supportive family that also helps market the business for me,” she added.
As the popularity of her products increased, her business, named ‘Debbie’s Delight’, started to receive more orders and invites to all kinds of events, in and outside Rundu. Having only started operating from her mother’s kitchen, Rengura now owns a fully-fledged bakery in her hometown and produces all kinds of grain-based food.
Her dream is to one day branch out and have bakeries across the country.
She said her secret to a thriving business is having overcome the obstacles deaf/hearing-impaired people often face when they become business owners.
She also credits her mother for her success, saying that she could not have made it as far as she has without her support and patience.
“We often encounter prejudice, and our capabilities are at most times undermined. While the digital era has made it possible for us to connect to our customers, vendors and so forth, it’s not as accessible as it could be,” she narrated.
Asked to give her stance on deaf awareness in Namibia, Rengura feels society in general still has a long way to go regarding deaf awareness, but she believes there has been progress over the years.
“I would like to remind, especially people living with disabilities, of what human purpose and perseverance can accomplish, even in the face of intense challenges and barriers,” she observed.
She thus encouraged other people with the same condition as hers not to let their circumstances get in the way of achieving their goals. “I want people with the same disability as mine to work hard and be determined. Deaf people can do anything, except hearing,” she said.
– ashikololo@nepc.com.na