Disabled African dancers visit (From Oxford Mail)

Disabled African dancers visit

5:35pm Thursday 11th September 2008

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Eight disabled Tanzanian dancers will return home tomorrow after nearly a month in Oxford.

The dancers have spent more than three weeks in the city demonstrating the work of their fellow townsfolk from Iringa in the East African country.

The visit was arranged by the Blackbird Leys-based Church Mission Society (CMS), which has run a charity project in Iringa for the past five years.

CMS worker Susie Hart created a craft workshop which now employs 90 disabled people in the town.

Each of the dancers — seven are profoundly deaf and one suffers from polio — has benefited directly from the Christian group’s work.

The eight have also perfected a traditional dance and drum act which sees them move in time despite their disabilities.

On Monday the group performed the routine for pupils from the Oxford Community School at the CMS headquarters in Watlington Road.

The group also visited museums in Oxford and London and performed in front of 20,000 people at the Green Belt Festival in Cheltenham.

Ms Hart said: "Blackbird Leys was the first place they saw in the UK. They thought it was fantastic. They said you have got good houses, very good roads and a good quality of buildings. They were just blown away by everything. They were fascinated by small things — like a roadsweeping machine in Oxford."

Ms Hart said the trip was as much about changing perceptions of disabled people as it was designed to show Britain to the Tanzanians.

Polio sufferer Haruna Mbata, 29, who was among the eight, said: "I like Oxford very much. The group have enjoyed it very much. The thing I have most enjoyed was the museums — they are very wonderful."

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