Ali Martin’s Story

Read Ali Martin`s story here:

Please tell me what it was like being an asylum seeker in the UK, and how your blindness

affected this experience.

Independently of my blindness, being an asylum seeker was the hardest thing I have ever

suffered in my life. Throughout my post-college life, I have never been for a whole year

without working. I am used to working and earning money. In this situation, I depended on

the Home Office and charity organisations for my living. I found it very challenging as a

person who for about fifteen years advocated for people who did not have voice. I was now

in a position where others had to speak out for me. This reminds me of the old adage: “No

condition is permanent”.

Accommodation was a serious challenge; there was an instance in which I was

accommodated in a place which looked like a prison cell. This place was filthy. Although I

was blind, I knew that I was walking on piles of filth. The steps were very high with no

protective railings, making it highly risky for anybody with visual or physical disabilities. The

ten days spent in that facility at High Street North were hell.

What support did you get?

I received different forms of support, including technical assistance, finance, legal service,

counselling, food, toiletries and internet service from various organisations like: the Cotton

Tree Trust, British Refugee Council, Joint Council for the Welfare of Emigrants (JCWI) and

the British Red Cross. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Newham Council also supported

me with food and toiletries.

The internet support from the Cotton Tree Trust is very essential not only to me but all

asylum seekers, as this helps us greatly to get in touch and closer to our family, relatives and

friends back home, thereby reducing the stress of nostalgia and loneliness.

The internet service was also instrumental in getting online news through various platforms

in asylum seekers’ home countries and the UK. Many asylum facilities do not have radios or

televisions, but with the internet service provided by the Cotton Tree Trust, people are able

to know what is happening in their homes and the UK.

Tell me about your life in Sierra Leone. What kind of family do you come from? What work

did you do? What were you most proud of doing in your country?

I lived a very simple life in Sierra Leone and gave all my time and service on improving and

transforming the lives of other disabled people who were not lucky enough to acquire an

education (as I did), and did not have any means of earning a living except through street

begging, which is demeaning to human dignity.

I come from an extended family of many siblings both in my biological family and adopted

family.

Why do you have two families?

To a great extent my blindness led to me having a second family. My biological family

(Sesay) did not have any knowledge about a blind person acquiring education. A renowned

educationist with the family name Bangura came across me while I was having eye

treatment in a particular location in Sierra Leone. He was able to convince my parents to

hand me over to him as his adopted son, in order for him to send me to the School for the

Blind in Freetown. This was very strange, as my parents never knew it was possible for a blind person to be

educated. However, my adopted father has passed away. I cannot reveal details that would endanger

my siblings and our properties in Sierra Leone, as this is a well-known family both at home

and abroad.

Religiously, my adopted family are Catholics Christians, and that is where I first came to

know about Christianity. My biological family are all Muslims. I happen to be the only

Christian because of my adopted family and the Christian life at the Milton Margai School

for the Blind, where I did my primary education.

I am happily married with four children who are all in Sierra Leone. They had to relocate

from one place to another on several occasions because of their association with me.

I was a development practitioner in Sierra Leone, who mainly focused on  disability and

gender activism in both the civil and public sectors.

In civil society, I worked with an organisation for Persons with Disability called Vision for the

Blind in the capacity of Programme Coordinator and Director of Gender and Human Rights. I

was key in the development and implementation of various projects which included:

research, inclusive education, skills training, campaigning against FGM and gender based

violence against girls and women with disabilities, counselling and rehabilitation, awareness

raising on the rights and dignity of Persons with Disability. I lobbied and advocated for the

enactment of legislations and the ratification of instruments for the protection of the rights

of Persons with Disabilities such as: the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with

Disability (UNCRPD) 2009 and the Persons with Disability Act of 2011, the Child Rights Act of

2007, the three Gender Acts of 2007 and the Sexual Offences Act of 2012. 

In the civil and public sectors, I was very instrumental; being a professionally trained and

qualified teacher, I taught at the Bombali School for the Blind and various mainstream

schools which included the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood (SLMB), Senior Secondary

School and the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Junior Secondary School, all in Makeni.

In result of my good work in promoting issues of disability in Sierra Leone, I received a

presidential appointment as the Regional Commissioner for the Northern Region in 2012,

for the National Commission for Persons with Disability, an institution established to ensure

the wellbeing of Persons with Disability in Sierra Leone through the Persons with Disability

Act of 2011. I served for six years in this position due to a re-appointment in 2015-2018.

I was mostly proud of the impact of my work, through the transformation of lives of persons

with disability. For instance: the successes I achieved getting disabled beggars off street

begging to engage in to livelihood skills that put food on their tables, due to our skills

training programmes for blind youths and adults.

I was also proud of the dozens of blind children we succeeded in getting out of the

confinements of their homes into various schools for the blind, so that they gain the

education they had been deprived of.

I am also proud of the many blind youths and adults I helped to rehabilitate, who are now

living lives of socio-economic independence.

Above all, many rural women I worked with in adult literacy and agricultural development

now know their fundamental human rights, and can report issues of sexual abuse and

domestic violence to the appropriate authorities and institutions.

Why did you leave Sierra Leone? 

I left Sierra Leone because the political environment became very toxic for political

opponents especially the members of the All People’s Congress (APC, of which I am an

active member).

I joined the APC in 2014, and became active in politics in 2017 before the 2018

parliamentary, local councils and presidential elections. The ruling APC Party lost the

elections to the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP); since then, members of the

APC have faced political oppression, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary detention and

extrajudicial executions under the SLPP Government.

Why did you choose to come to the UK?

I came to the UK to attend a conference on capacity building as a Human Right Activist. I

wanted to return just as on my previous visits to the UK, but there were significant threats

to my safety, even in my absence.

How did you lose your sight? 

I lost my sight through measles ailment three years after birth. 

How did you deal with your disability in Sierra Leone and how do you deal with it now?

I confronted my disability from childhood on into my adulthood. Sierra Leone, being a

developing country like many other developing countries, issues of disability are very

challenging, as Persons with Disability face serious discrimination and marginalization due to

ignorance and superstitious beliefs held by society.

The lack of “political will” to enact legislations, formulate policies on disability rights and

protection, and the enforcement of such legislations and policies have significantly hindered

disability development; thus, the majority of Persons with Disability have not been able to

achieve socio-economic dependency.

My parents tried their very best to overprotect me by excluding me from doing most things

when I was a child, but I always rebelled against such decisions. For instance, they never

wanted me to go to the farm we owned, because they thought it was dangerous for a blind

child. When I insisted on going there, they did not like me doing anything. They wanted me

just to sit in the farmhouse, but I always refused and engaged in the farm work that the

family did.

Educationally, it was very difficult as a blind person. We lacked modern assistive technology

in Sierra Leone, but I strived throughout my secondary school, college and university to

achieve quality education.

In the UK I will continue to strive hard for my disability not to overwhelm me; rather, I will

always confront my disability.

What do you hope to achieve in the UK? What are your hopes and fears?

I would like to join parties who are working towards improving the lives of asylum seekers

and refugees. With what I have gone through, I am happy to share my experience and

advocate for vulnerable asylum seekers especially those with disabilities, who are suffering

in silence, as much is not known about the pains they are going through. With such

advocacies, asylum seekers like children and persons with disabilities will have better

attention and respect for human dignity.

Thank you very much for your time and openness. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

With my experience in disability and advocacy rights, I am very happy to share my

experience and work with all interested parties.