30-year-old Stephen Dhieu has a Masters degree in International Law and a Bachelor degree in Social Work and Social Administration. Credit|Eye Radio

A qualified young man whom employers turned away because of his blindness will soon land his hands on a job after a civil society organization promised one.

“CEPO believes in the principle of disability is not inability,” an e-mail from CEPO to Eye Radio partly read.

Stephen Dhieu, a two degree-holder recently told Eye Radio that employers have refused to recruit him owing to his visual impairment.

“Most of the times I go for [job] interviews, and they will always ask; ‘how are you going to see to do the job?” Dhieu told Eye Radio.

The 30-year-old South Sudanese has a Master’s degree in International Law from Makerere University and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration from the International University of East Africa.

Dhieu said employers have often questioned his physical abilities rather than his qualifications.

In order to survive, Dhieu resorted to selling charcoal, while researching on people with disabilities across the country.

“I don’t want any handouts, I want a job!” Dhieu told Eye Radio’s Okot Emmanuel during the Sundown program in December 2020.

After Eye Radio published the story, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, CEPO, has offered Mr. Dhieu a job.

Dhieu will take over the position of Inclusion Advocacy officer from February 2021.

“Kindly inform him to share his CV with [CEPO],” the e-mail from CEPO indicated.

“We have a lot to offer to the country because it is not me alone that has attained [such] qualifications, but can’t get a job as a blind person,” Stephen Dhieu argued.

There is no specific legislation relating to the rights of persons with disabilities in the country and South Sudan has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“My appeal to the government is that they have to expedite the process of signing the disability policy that is in the parliament for us the disable people to be included in all aspects of society and development,” Dhieu stressed.

According to the Union of Physically Disabled Persons in South Sudan, most people with disabilities are unemployed.

It said those with special needs have no social safety nets and food security schemes in South Sudan.

The organization identified barriers to employment to include the attitude of employers and the public on those physically challenged.