Hon. Margaret Baba Diri with her instructor during her visit to the United States of America
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I Life is a journey that compels human beings to keep giving.
This was true of Hon. Margaret Baba Diri, a former legislator in the Uganda Parliament.
A relentless servant who served her people with an undivided mind Baba Diri proved that the brains of those who tragically become blind make new connections in the absence of visual information, resulting in enhanced, compensatory abilities.
Having been born on the 29th day of June 1954, the late Hon Margaret Baba Diri, who passed away on 9th January 2025, was a woman of substance, a leader of undisputed moral character with a drive to pull her constituents of Koboko out of grinding poverty.
She joined Parliament in 1996 as a lawmaker for people with disabilities (PWDs) and later in 2005, she became the Woman MP for Koboko District until 2021, making her one of the longest-serving legislatures.
One of the traits she bore was that she was a dedicated role model and an irreplaceable leader
The former Koboko District Woman MP, emerged as one of the longest serving MPs in Parliament, having served for more than 20 years. He impairment never deterred her from persuing her dreams, and she could not take no for an answer.
Hon. Margaret Baba Diri doing her legislative work
Hon. Baba Diri lost her sight in 1990 from glaucoma. She had been teaching biology and chemistry at a secondary school for 14 years, and when she lost her sight, she also lost her ability to teach.
She though it was the end of her life. That was however before she met a trusted friend who encouraged her to go all the way to the top.
New career path
This friend reminded her that the loss of her sight didn’t diminish her intellect. She was later to go on and learn braille, practice mobility training, and find a new career.
At the time, there was little advocacy in the Ugandan Parliament for people with disabilities, she said. So, she joined a new organization, the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda, and helped lobby for them to receive five new seats in Parliament. She was tapped to fill one of them.
After serving two terms, she decided to leave the designated seat and run to represent her entire district. She won and served in the August House for three consecutive terms.
When Baba Diri was first elected to the seat, there were only 36 primary schools in her district, she said. By the time she passed on, there are 68. She also helped to open two school annexes for blind students, where they can learn braille and mobility skills.
Her big worry however, was that those facilities don’t have the equipment they need.
This brings to the fore the fact that although more students with disabilities are attending secondary schools and universities all over Uganda, they often face limited employment opportunities after graduation.
Vision loss
Globally, 1.1 billion people live with vision loss, including blindness according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It says women and girls make up 55% of these people – that’s 112 million more women than men.
This has made blindness a gender issue, because in many parts of the world, gender inequality means women face additional barriers to accessing eye care that men don’t.
They are usually faced with the issue of limited financial resources and time, inability to travel and safety concerns, and a lack of women eye health providers. For cultural or other reasons, women might not seek care from a male practitioner.
Globally, women represent only 25-30% of ophthalmologists and 35-45% of professionals-in-training, few of whom are in low- and middle-income countries,
Dream lives on
Once the Ugandan Parliament sponsored Baba Diri’s visit to the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, USA. This visit changed her life forever and helped her develop new aspirations. That was the time when she developed her vision of erecting a center for the blind.
During that time, one of the things she had cherished was discussing the piece of land she has set aside in her home district of Koboko for the center.
This dream never really came to pass, since she died before accomplishing it. During her time at the US center, she perfected her skill reading braille which, with the use of a special machine, could record, edit, and print notes in braille.
She practiced a range of everyday tasks, such as crossing streets, washing clothes, and cooking meals.
As she learnt, she is taking careful note of how those skills are taught and envisioning how she would construct her own programs.
Baba Diri also learnt how to use her iPhone. She could scroll through her iPhone. The screen was dark, and she could hold the phone closer to her chest.
Her finger could swipe through the pages as an automated voice calls out the names of her apps until she lands on the one she wants.
When Baba Diri returned to Uganda, she rededicated herself to her dream of opening her own center for the blind.
She also promised to work to advance a state of public works projects, including efforts to provide better access to water and electricity in Koboko district.
Some of these plans never came to pass, since she passed on at the age of 70, after being rushed to a health facility in Kawempe Division by a driver. She was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
