Since 2017, this 43-year-old woman has trained dozens of visually impaired women - and a few men - in the art of massage to create jobs for this discriminated community in Rwanda.

Even today, demand for massage services offered by his company Seeing Hands is limited to foreigners.

"Rwandans say they don't want their body to be touched by a blind person, that it can be a source of bad luck", explains Beth Gatonye: "It's as if they think that being blind is contagious".

According to the Rwandan Federation of the Blind (RUB), stigma deprives visually impaired citizens of educational or professional opportunities.

They had to wait even longer to access university education, which became accessible only in 2008.

"They live in isolation and loneliness. Some are (...) hidden by their families because they represent a shame," said RUB spokeswoman Rachel Musabyimana.

"Useless People"

"The Rwandans consider us useless people," says Immaculée Karuhura, one of the Seeing Hands masseuses: "They think we only survive by begging."

Training session for blind masseuses, within the office of the Seeing Hands association, in Kigali on March 18, 2022 Simon Wohlfahrt AFP

Although the coronavirus pandemic has hit their business hard, with massage services banned during strict lockdowns imposed in Rwanda, Gatonye is now overwhelmed with demand.

“I have 15 blind women who are currently working as massage therapists (…) Bringing back all the people who worked here before the pandemic is difficult, but we are trying,” she says.

According to Rwanda National Blindness Survey 2021, the leading causes of visual impairment are untreated cataracts and glaucoma.

Up to 80% of cases are considered preventable or reversible.

Companies like Seeing Hands promise financial autonomy to blind Rwandans, who make up just over 1% of the population, according to the national survey.

“Now I can manage my life. I can pay the rent and pay my children's school fees,” rejoices Immaculée Karuhura.

Immaculee Karuhura is guided in her gestures by Beth Gatonye, ​​the founder of Seeing Hands, at the association's office in Kigali on March 18, 2022 Simon Wohlfahrt AFP

But this job means so much more to her.

"When I serve a client, I feel happy," she says, emphasizing how this job has given meaning to her life and a sense of integration: "I feel like I'm communicating with my clients during a therapy session, and that's something that really moves me."

© 2022 AFP