Robert Malunda

Robert Malunda is a trainer and founder of the Gateway to Elation, an Bulawayo-based organisation that trains the visually impaired and the deaf. ^[1] Malunda often provides opinion and advice on issues to do with development programmes for the welfare of persons with physical disabilities.

Background

Robert Malunda was born in Makokoba, Bulawayo. He was affected by glaucoma at the age of 3 which resulted in him losing his sight.

Education

According to Malunda, growing up, there were no braille textbooks at his school and he had to depend on his classmates for his academic needs.

Malunda attended McKeurtan Primary School in Makokoba. Later he enrolled at John Tallach High and Mtshabezi High schools. For his university education he attended the Midlands State University where he studied taking African Languages and Culture Studies.

Malunda has said about his education experience:

“We had a huge challenge of accessing information as blind people from as early as primary school, Braille reading material was scarce because the manufacturing of Braille materials is expensive. We had to depend on our sighted friends for reading to us information that was written on the board and also for note taking. But when I moved to university, I felt this need for independence and I researched how blind people can use computers. I was at university in 2010,” ^[2]

In 2015, Malunda won a scholarship for studying in India at Kanthari International, a social leadership school offering a 12 month for visionaries who have overcome adversity and who are keen to drive ethical social change anywhere in the world.

Gateway to Elation

In 2016, Malunda founded Gateway to Elation. The organisation's stated purpose is to "see a Zimbabwe which has knowledgeable, independent and socially active blind people." Malunda trains blind people how to use computers and also rehabilitates the newly-blind so that they learn Braille.