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By Gilbert Munetsi
A blind female administrator who in 1990 defied the odds by winning the national Worker of the Year award has died, Nhau has learnt.
For one who suffered complications of a measles outbreak at the age of two, the late Shelter Jasi has been described by former workmates and family as having been born a genius.
Jasi, who during the May Day commemorations of May 1, 1990, was handed a trophy and a monetary token by then state President Robert Mugabe at Rufaro Stadium, last Sunday succumbed to an unknown ailment.
She was laid to rest at Muneno Village in Murehwa on Monday. She was 58.
Identified by the United Methodist Church as a young disadvantaged girl, Shelter and three other pupils were the pioneers of the Resource Room for the blind at Murehwa Mission back in the early ’70s. There, she and her classmates learnt braille.
She later enrolled at Kapota School for the Blind in Masvingo where she obtained an Ordinary Level certificate.
Upon completion of her secondary education, Jasi was in 1988 offered a job at the Dorothy Duncan Centre in Greendale and her duties included operating the switchboard, typing and indoor mobility.
She was to later extend her duties to tutoring switchboard skills to rehabilitated students and proof read books (novels and textbooks for both primary and secondary education) printed in braille.
But the major highlight of her career was being recognised by organisers of the Workers Day commemorations and being conferred with the Worker of the Year gong.
Of this she said:
“To be the worker of the year and to shake hands with the President is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me.
“I always remember the President saying to me, ‘Makorokoto, makorokoto’.
“l never thought that a blind woman could achieve that. l was very happy and l keep a photo of the President and myself both at home and in the office.”
Though she used part of the prize money to buy a cow with the hope it would reproduce and make a herd, it unfortunately died. Nhau/Indaba
