Monday, May 04, 2015
Abdikader Shukri was left paralysed after two men shot him outside his grocery shop in Gugulethu, Cape Town, during a spate of xenophobic attacks three years ago. But Shukri considers himself lucky.
The 32-year-old Somali national has cousins and friends who supported him throughout the ordeal, which saw him hospitalised for two months – and now he wants to help fellow Somali victims of violence in South Africa.
Shukri founded the Somalia Disabilities Board Cape Town SA 10 months ago, which today has 27 members countrywide.
The board provides rehabilitation and counselling. He also hopes to raise money to educate disabled Somali people about work that is less physically demanding.
“As humanity, we normally focus on the numbers of people who died. But what about those left disabled, who are alive but whose lives have changed so much?” he asked during an interview with City Press on Thursday at the Vangate Mall in Athlone, Cape Town.
He was accompanied by his friend Mohammed Warsame, whose wife was paralysed when she was beaten at her shop in Philippi in 2011. She was pregnant at the time, but miraculously, their baby was born healthy.
Shukri’s cousin, Saede Omar, also came along and pushed Shukri’s wheelchair.
Shukri is soft-spoken, his speech laced with smiles. Occasionally, he stutters. His T-shirt is a souvenir from a recent wheelchair race.
Shukri has official refugee status, which qualifies him for a monthly disability grant of R1 350.
“I’m so lucky to have people who care about me. My cousins drove me to the rehab centre for five months, where I swam and did exercises, enabling me to sit again,” he says.
It was at the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre that Shukri first offered his services as a translator and life coach to fellow Somali shop owners injured during attacks.
“Some of the people from Somalia, they don’t speak English and don’t have the education to understand what has happened to their bodies, why their legs aren’t working. So I explain this to them. The people at the centre started to call me to help explain.”
Right now, he is counselling three Somali nationals who are being treated at the centre for spinal injuries – one man was attacked in Kayamandi near Stellenbosch, another in Milnerton, and a woman was robbed and beaten at her store in Hermanus.
“When these people were discharged from the public hospitals, there was just no support for them. So I’m coordinating that,” he says.
Shukri also interacts with Somalis with disabilities through social media. The board has an active Facebook page, on which he shares medical research and, in the past week, news of unfolding xenophobic attacks.
Shukri and his injured countrymen have been victims of random acts of crime rather than organised xenophobic attacks.
When asked about the violence that erupted in KwaZulu-Natal recently, the three men shake their heads.
“There is this constant fear that hangs over our heads. You just never know when the attacks could start or spread,” Shukri explains.
Nevertheless, his quality of life in South Africa is still better than it would be back home in Somalia, which has been devastated by civil war since 1991.
Thousands of Somalis have emigrated to South Africa, establishing themselves in the retail sector by, in particular, selling snacks, soft drinks and clothing. About 20 000 Somalis were displaced in the Western Cape during xenophobic unrest in 2008.