The Gonzague pierre-louis story.

What is the most important help that can be offered to a person who has disability?

Ask Gonzague Pierre-Louis, who is probably the most well known person with a disability on Rodrigues.

He will reply without hesitation : to be able to work and earn a salary that will enable me to provide for my family. My job allows me to live a more or less normal life and permits me to contribute my share to the family budget so that we can have most of what we need.

My job also gets me out of the house, meet other people and have social contact. But most important aspect is that it allowsme to get some money.

"To have learned to read Braille, play the guitar and sing, walk with a white stick, all this is very important too, but most important is to work and earn a wage".

Before I started to work, I did many things but I was always stuck in the house and was totally dependent on gifts and social security pay-outs to buy the basics of life for me and my family.

Now that I am working and earning a wage it has made a big difference to me and to peace of mind.

To get a pension from the Governement is a great help, and to some handicaped people it is extremely important if they really can't get a job. But for me the most important is the money I get from my job at the Craft Aid handicraft workshop.

Question : Wouldn't you have preferred to open your own workshop and start your own business rather than depend on a wage and conditions decided by someone else?

" In fact that does not worry me very much", he replies.

To work for oneself and to start ones own business isn't always as easy as all that. There are aspects to running a small business that I might not be able to tackle without help. That is why being part of a group has definite advantages.

At Craft Aid workshop each person is assessed on his ability to do a certain operation and then he does it.

The operation that I do is quite simple - did not take long to learn and I am one link in a chain of operations making handicrafted goods. Other with different handicaps find their place at different stages and some can do things that I would find difficult to do. All together we can produce quality goods that can be sold all over the world.

What is the most important to me is that the workshop is well organized, work is disciplined and fair to all.That wouldn't mean than I wouldn't like to earn more that I get ! However I have no great complaints about the work at Craft Aid.

Sports and social activities are also important and helpful to people who have disabilities, especially those who cannot work.

My wife helps as a volunteer in a small group which takes in children with mental handicaps which is run by the Rodrigues Assiciation For The Disabled and I don't see anything wrong in that, on the contrary I encourage her to continue. However for me it is still most important to aim to create paid employment for handicapped people.

Singing and recording cassettes on my music is another great pleasure for me. But there are risks in that, it is in the hand of the people who commercialise the cassettes. However the pleasure that I get to hear my music on the radio and playing on people's cassette players makes to financial risks worthwhile.
I certainly haven't yet become a millionaire from my music, but who knows one day ! So far this has enable me to go to England, Wales and Australia with the "Groupement des Artistes" and the National Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled".

Always cheerful and ambitious Gonzague Pierre-Louis has many projects lined for the future, but his basic activity is his job at the Craft Aid.