I was aware of the existence of self-help groups for persons who stutter abroad and gradually began to cherish the hope of launching a group locally. After much reflection and hesitation, I called La Vie Catholique - the only newspaper I knew would publish an advertisement for free. I connected with Sandra Potié and contrary to what I had feared she showed great interest in our project. On the 1st of October 2005 an attractive advertisement was published inviting persons who stutter - including their friends and families - to an information meeting to be held October 13th.

We were expecting 4-5 persons to attend but were surprised by an attendance of over 15. I introduced myself, for the very first time stated in public that I am a person who stutters. I also introduced Mark Irwin, the president of the International Stuttering Association who was traveling through Mauritius. He explained about self-help groups and how it could benefit stutterers in Mauritius. I translated everything into Creole. All those present were very attentive with many questions and comments. Before leaving we agreed to hold our first meeting on the 22nd of October - international stuttering awareness day.

Our self-help group is not a permanent one, but has a limited number of meetings - usually 16. We divided the program into three phases: 1 - acquire, 2 - transfer and 3 - maintain. In the first phase, the longest one - around 10 meetings - we get to know each other and we work on acquiring techniques to regain control over our breath and speech. We practice breathing and relaxation exercises, slow flow reading, picture reading and group discussions. Members are also invited to practice the exercises at home and to make notes on a follow-up sheet.

At the end of this phase, we evaluate - both in group and individually - the achievement of each member and the progress that remains to be done. The means to attain these are identified and highlighted. By that time the group has become homogeneous and members readily help each other - most of the time without being aware of doing so. By that time also, all members have acquired basic knowledge about stuttering and know what means are available to them in order to attain more fluent speech. They then take their speech fluency into their own hands.

During the remaining meetings, we perform the same exercises paying attention to the ways to transfer this confident way of speaking into our daily life. During the last phase, we think about how we will maintain our achievements even without the help of a self-help group. Our self-help group also has a library facility for further reading. We are very thankful to the Stuttering Foundation of America for their contribution of books and DVDs.

The objective behind the structure of our programme is to give members the opportunity to interact with fluent persons outside the group, once they have acquired sufficient confidence in their speech. Also, due to the fact that we have no permanent structure - in terms of meeting place etc. - this way of functioning is very convenient. To date, we have run 2 batches and are planning to launch a third batch early in 2007. On December 17th 2005, our group decided to take the name of Parole d'Espoir - literally "Hope for our Speech". You may contact us at parole.espoir@yahoo.com.

Below are three short reports from current members of our group.

My name is Alain Kwan (alainkwan@intnet.mu). I am 45 years old, and I am married with two children: one boy of 20 years and a girl of 16 years. I am a Sales Supervisor in a private sector company and I believe in God.

What motivated me to join the group was that I had enough of not being able to effectively communicate my views to others. Very often, due to my stuttering problem, I avoided arguing with my subordinates and preferred to remain silent during management meetings. I suffered a lot from this situation and my prospects of professional advancement were hindered.

At first it was not easy for me to admit that I stutter but as the weeks passed I was transformed and became conscious of what led me to stutter. Slowly I gained confidence and learned how to control my feelings and emotions. Through the books I read, I learned that fear is a normal feeling but it can be overcome.

During the meetings, I practiced breathing exercises, reduced flow reading exercises, and relaxation exercises. All these helped me gain confidence. It was also beneficial to meet and interact other persons in the same situation and strong solidarity links were created between us.

I have achieved a lot thanks to Parole d'Espoir. I am a confident, enthusiastic and optimistic person and this has extended to my family and colleagues. I am practising exercises regularly and realize that there will be some situations where I still might stutter.

I am Angelè (ngel_mel@yahoo.com) and am 22 years old. 18 years of my life have been based on fears, uncomfortable situations and silence. From the age of 4, I was different from others. I was afraid to open my mouth and speak because of others' reactions. Today, most of these fears have melted away; I'm not saying all because the feeling of being a person who stutters remains. However I'm doing my best to say "I used to be a stutterer".

I tried several speech therapies but quit when I found no improvement. The best course of action I could envisage at that time was to stay silent or say few words. Avoiding situations where I had to speak was the only way for me not to feel inferior from others. My mum encouraged me to become more open about my stuttering by reporting about a self help group in Mauritius in "La Vie Catholique", a weekly newspaper. With little conviction I told her to phone the contact person.

With this phone call, my life started to change. The day I saw other people like me, having the same problem, I understood that it was time for me to do something about my stuttering. The self-help group "Parole d'Espoir" was just what I needed.

I've learned how to breathe and how to control my breathing. Saying vowels loudly and slowly also help to regain the control of my speech. I've learned to slow down and to breathe deeply before each sentence. This group was not only a place to learn about oneself but it was also a place to relax and regain trust in ourselves.

However it was not always easy to speak fluently. It was like a dance step; one step forward, two steps backward, two in front and one back. But I was never discouraged for long. My objective was to speak clearly so that I make myself understood by others. My desire to pursue a university education and beome a professional woman was increasing greatly.

And today I am proud of myself. Although the journey is difficult and not yet completed, I have acquired better speech. But more importantly, I regained trust in my actions, in my words and especially in myself. I remain convinced of my ability to overcome my stuttering and I am sure that I will soon say, "I used to be a stutterer."

Whoever you are, stutterer or not, believe in yourself and in your abilities to overcome your fears and your problems. Being a person who stutters does not mean that you are inferior from others or abnormal; you are just like any person. Just search and you'll find how great you are and how far you can reach.

Hi, I am Yasvin, 19 years old and I live in Phoenix, Mauritius. I have been stuttering since my childhood. I am a shy person and usually avoid talking to strangers or to those not close to me. However I live like a normal person within my family and friends, smiling, joking and of course stuttering without caring. Till now I had shared my problem with only two of my close friends. Nobody else is aware that I am sharing it to you through this article except my friend Shameer. I believe the reason for which I don't confide is the fear of pity; I can't stand people feeling sorry for me. And also, even talking about my stutter is painful for me and makes me feel inadequate. I use my own techniques to communicate, by using my hands when explaining or starting my sentences with "huemmm".

When I pray, I always ask for a cure for my stuttering but until now nothing has really happened. As I avoid going out to meet people, I spend a lot of time surfing on the internet. I researched stuttering and met Keith Boss through a Yahoo support group (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/stutteringchat). He is a recovering stutterer who lives in the UK and helped me a lot in regaining confidence I myself.

Through e-mails we became close friends and shared our life experience. I told him that there was no self-help group in Mauritius that could help me. Within five days he surprised me by tracing out a support group here in my island, "Parole d'Espoir".

I immediately contacted Jim who invited me to join the group. On the day of the first meeting, I realized that I would have to go alone there - something I was not used to. But with the support of my parents I finally joined the group and met other people who stutter.

I have attended meetings regularly for three months. I have been learning techniques to control my speech. We have relaxation sessions and learn how to breathe when talking. Jim showed us how to talk slowly and smoothly without any rush and what to do when we have blocks in our speech. I am very grateful to "Parole d'Espoir" thanks to which I have learned many things that will help my in my daily life. There are no magic pills for stuttering, the only treatment is speech therapy.

My message to persons who stutter is: Don't think that you alone in the world if you have a stuttering problem (like I used to think before). I believe that every person wherever he is has his abilities and importance in this world and whatever happens, life continues, so live the way you wish without fear.

I have created my own website and wish to interact with people all around the world. Anyone interested to joining me and my friends can contact me on somootee@yahoo.com or you can visit my webpage on http://stammer.atspace.com.

It has been difficult or better still challenging if one analyzes how stammering has played into his life. I however do not think I am alone in encountering these challenges which probably comes from the general belief of people.

BELIEFS OF PEOPLE CONCERNING STAMMERING

Before I proceed with some beliefs peculiar to particular ethnic group(s) in Ghana, let me give you the general beliefs about stammering. These appear to have lost their origin. And like folklore, it is not too easy to trace their origins. First, there is the belief that if you stammer, and you cultivate the habit of picking and eating any food you find on the ground, irrespective of the hygienic status of the ground, you will be "healed" from stammering. I must say that there was almost no pressure on me to practice that when I was young and because I personally do not believe in just any belief, I hardly practised eating any such foods. But in the course of my interaction with someone who has a brother who stammers, he confessed that his family had pressured the brother to eat any food he saw on the ground since the time he was young. And that though the brother practised that faithfully till he became an adult, well above twenty, his stammering has not disappeared.

There is also the belief that stammerers are very quick tempered. I am not too sure if I am one because I hardly get angry unnecessarily. The origin of this belief also unknown and the belief itself is unsubstantiated, as far as I am concerned. But since a lie repeated with zeal over time gains credibility, many people now identify with this ascertion.

Some also are of the belief that stammering is associated with lying. Thus any time you are asked a probing question and the answer comes stammeringly, then you should take that answer with a grain of sand. It is likely not to be the truth or the whole truth.

ETHNIC BELIEFS

Among the major ethnic groups in Ghana, there seem to be no beliefs that discriminates against the stammerer. At least among the Ga-Adangme who occupy the capital, Accra, the Ewes who are the majority in the Volta Region of Ghana and even among the Nzemas of the Western Region, the Dagombas of the Northern Region and the Kassena of the Upper East Region.

But among the Akans who are about 35% of the total population of Ghana, a stammerer cannot be installed chief even if he is the most suitable candidate. Probably this tradition exists because the Akans see themselves as great talkers and it would be embarrassing to have a chief who is not fluent. I personally find it difficult to share this tradition simply because in the Akan set up, the Chief speaks and hears through his linguist. It is even widely acknowledged among many analysts that linguists are better talkers as compared with the chiefs they represent. In fact, whether a chief is a stammerer or not, is largely inconsequential in my view because he will always speak through someone. But the belief or tradition still exists.

These have been some of the beliefs of Ghanaians in general. And as a stammerer one has to live with them and accept them as part of the hazards of their disability.

I cannot remember if I ever told my parents that it wasn't their fault that I stutter, because I was convinced of this at one time.

There came a point when I was growing up, that I built some sort of wall around myself. I was a Person Who Stutter ( PWS ), and still am. I did come across a Speech Therapist, who only occasionally visited the nearest town to me, about eighty kilometers from my home, when I was fourteen years old, but I thought I was the only one who stuttered, no matter how many times I heard information about stuttering in the media or through a word-of-mouth. I became quite anti-social, unnecessarily. I didn't do well in groups. I was trying to avoid social pressures and peer-pressure as a Black South African. I moved around from the village to the farms to the township to the city, and the cycle went on.

When I was 20, I finally met several people who stutter, gathered in the same place at the fifth World Congress for PWS in Johannesburgh, South Africa. I was very surprised to see them doing almost everything amongst themselves.

I then had an opportunity to attend a National Stuttering Association ( NSA ) convention (we call them a congress) in Chicago, USA, when I was twenty one years old.

South Africa is both the First and Third World country, with a similar percentage of middle class society in-between. This is an issue which poses challenges to the smooth running of our national stuttering body and makes me wonder if what I observed working almost perfectly in Chicago, USA, and Australia, or for the SCAC, a stuttering society of Cameroon, when I was there attending the first African Federation in October of 2005, can be duplicated in South Africa.

I have started attending the Speak Easy self-help meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa. I am currently attending the meetings in Tshwane (Pretoria ) where I reside. I can now mark a change in my speech fluency ever since I started attending.

We will go to Croatia, for the International Stuttering Association Congress in 2007. I hope the Congress returns to Africa in 2010 and meets in South America in 2013, where we will measure progress since International Stuttering Awareness Day began in1998.

I sincerely appreciate all those who are committed to spreading awareness of stuttering both locally, where they are, and also internationally, impacting positively those they don't know, contrary to the prevailing philosophy that one mustn't talk to strangers.

Realeboga, Siyabonga, Ndzi-khense-ngopfu, Dankie, Ndi-a-livhuwa, Ngiyathokoza, Mmoja-ke! (the seven words/phrases reflect some of the eleven official languages of South Africa). All of they can be translated "Thank you."

I have started working in medical centers in order to promote speech therapy because that medical subject isn't known by the people in Benin. I participate in several ways and means to promote speech therapy. I participate in and lead many associations (Hope of Stutters, Ortho ­ Benin, Equilibre- Benin, La Chrysalide). We organise conferences and holiday camps at minimum charge for people who stutter. I participated to the states conference about deafness at Cotonou in July 2003, the first African conference about stuttering at Douala in October 2005 and other meeting in my country and in foreign countries. I also train teachers and people in charge of rehabilitation or readjustment of persons suffering of stuttering in local areas. I am in contacts with many therapists (Belgian, French, Swiss, Congolese, Cameroonian and Togolese) in order to exchange experiences. You can get in contact with me. This is my address: Ayodè Edith OCHOUMARE
03 BP 696 Cotonou BENIN
Phone: (229) 21 38 29 07
Cell: (229) 95 40 48 52
(229) 97 09 24 11
Email: echedith@yahoo.fr