43. Rita

Have you ever met someone and then thought you need to take their photo, get an autograph or keep a memento because you know – you just know – that in the future they’re going to achieve something incredible, and you want something that says, ‘I met them once’.

I get that feeling with Rita.

She sits in front of me wearing her school uniform with a very long tie and short cropped hair and beams at me like she has a secret – or maybe a secret power – that she wants to show me and the world. And then with only a little prodding, she blurts it out:

“I’m the fastest Deaf runner in Kenya.”

I’m impressed and ask her to tell me more but there’s little more to be said. “Over 100 and 200 metres, no deaf woman can beat me.” She smiles as if to let her case rest. I tell her that next August I will be in Kenya for the DMI International Conference, and I would like to race her over 100 metres. She laughs at the absurdity of this until I say that I want a 50-metre head start. She thinks about this, looks at the lines in my sad, ageing face and decides she’s still a sure bet to win. “You’re on.”

Rita wasn’t born deaf. At the age of 9, she fell sick with meningitis, had a painful ringing in her ears, then lost her hearing altogether. I tell her I’m sorry about that but she doesn’t want to hear it (no pun intended). “I don’t miss hearing,” she said. “I actually like being deaf.” I press her on this and she tells me that it’s the community. The Deaf community is so rich and vibrant. She has so many friends and she loves signing with them, singing in sign with them, worshipping with them in Deaf church. She loves her life.

She breaks this down.

She has her family. She is one of five siblings, but she always felt included, even after becoming deaf – especially after becoming deaf. Her parents learned to sign, as did one of her sisters in particular, so Rita has always enjoyed the love of her family. This is uncommon in developing countries where, as these blogs testify, deaf children are typically neglected and even abandoned.

She has a strong Christian community. She was baptised at the age of 10, not just into the Faith but into a precious community of believers. She tells me that she loves her faith because she knows it is only God who can help her. It is God who has saved her from her sin. It is God who has blessed her with such wonderful parents and supporters. Psalm 50:23 says, “The life that pleases me is the life lived in the gratitude of grace.” Rita truly has a heart of gratitude.

She also has her school community. She enjoys studying literature, science and Kenyan sign language. She loves sport. But it’s the deaf community at the school that she really savours. DMI has supported her right through her elementary and now secondary schooling, enabling her to have a full education and the promise of a meaningful working life. 

But there’s more to Rita’s life (of course).

The school has provided Rita with the opportunity to excel in what she really loves: to run. It was the great Scottish flyer Eric Liddell who, in the dramatised version of his life said, “God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” These are also the words of the Kenyan flyer Rita Akoth. She runs for 2 hours every day after school and loves every minute of it. She is aiming for the Deaf Olympics and one day, just maybe, she might even make the Olympic Games.

Watch for her. And when you see her run, tell your friends, “I read the blog of a 57-year-old guy who once beat her in a race…” (Don’t tell them about the 50-metre head start.)

Rita is a real success story for DMI. It’s wonderful to see DMI work with families and local communities to empower young Deaf to greatness.

Student sponsorship changes lives – like Rita’s. Please sponsor a child and empower them to become great. Go to: https://deafmin.org/child-sponsorship/