Nkhota Bay is the home of sixty-year-old L. Chimota, a physically challenged man whose legs became paralyzed when he was seven years of age. The illness that followed was unknown to him. The only thing he knew was that he would henceforth craw in the dust, or be carried by his relatives.

When he grew up he moved to Mzuzu City in search of some sort of opportunities.

“Unlike many physically challenged people who stand around near big shops in town waiting for a hand out, Chimota spends his days beside the buildings at the Shopping Center’s veranda sewing and patching-up people’s worn out clothes for his food and wages. Quite to the contrary, instead of waiting for help, he amazingly extends his hand to reach out to others who need help. He was just born a hard worker,” Yunusu Mataka explained about him. Mataka works at the Namikango Mission in Thondwe, and it was he who took the wheelchair on the long trip north in order to deliver it to Chimota.

Mataka continues his report, “In 2009 his wheelchair was broken beyond repair. This rendered the big man destitute. As the family’s breadwinner, Chimota experienced and was forced to spend some of the little money he could make daily to board a bus to and from work. Efforts to find assistance from organizations such as Malawi Against Polio (MAP) and MACOHA to obtain a wheelchair proved futile. They all had no wheelchair in stock to help him with. At MAP northern region headquarters, his request just piled up in a large group of requests. He was told MAP only had pieces of broken wheelchairs that could cost over MK30,000.00. That would be equal to $200.00 American dollars. He couldn’t raise that much. He gave up.”

However, that wasn’t the end of him. God opened another door through the Malawi Project Inc., in corroboration with the Free Wheelchair Mission. They jointly shipped a new wheelchair for the old man to use. When the wheelchair arrived at the Namikango Mission, one of the workers, knowing the predicament of Mr. L Chimoto ensured that he would benefit. He took the wheelchair for the long journey north just so the old man would be able to move, work and help his family.

As Chimota watched Yunusu Mataka leave that day for the return trip to Namikango, his life had witnessed God’s Hand opening another door for him and his future. He can now go to his business and make a little money for his family’s survival. He can go to the church and worship. He can once again go out and chat with his friends. As he smiles, Chimota has been assured of the caring Hand of God.

- Wilson Tembo and Richard Stephens

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…spending each hour of every day of your 4o year life confined to a remote African village.

…crawling through its dust wherever you

… lying at the same doorstep

Sitela Village, Malawi … it was a busy day with a tight schedule at the Namikango Mission in southern Malawi. A major increase in requests for wheelchairs has continued to pour in. Though responses to the requests are simple and straightforward the biggest problem is having enough funding to transport the chairs from the Mission to the needy. The physically challenged people in the remote areas cannot make it to the mission to get a wheelchair. It is hard to image, if you can walk easily, what it means for a physically challenged person to cover a ten-kilometer distance without help.

We followed a winding, steep, and narrow road that cuts through the two hills, Mitumbu to the east and Mingozi to the west. Before crossing a small bridge over Milombozi stream, we enter the village of Sandeni. It is under the jurisdiction of Traditional Authority Chitera-Chiladzulu district, and is located south west of Namikango. The village is situated in a fertile valley, where the villagers spend much of their time faming. The green cover of a sugar cane plantation, and vegetable gardens growing all along the small stream are evident. The village is approximately 10 kilometers south west of the Mission, but who can crawl 10 kilometers to get a much-needed wheelchair?

As we moved along the path and approached the village, a crowd was patiently waiting down the steep side of the hill. Little did we know that all of them were all physically challenged? They all have varied challenges, none can walk, and some have hearing-impairments and others cannot speak. My eyes sought out Mr. Charles Nkuzeni, 40. He was the man we had come to see. He was sitting directly opposite the place from where we were descending, Charles showed some confidence, and was probably sure he would get a much-needed wheelchair. He comes from Sitela Village of Traditional Authority Chitera in Chiladzulu District. If he wants to move, Charles has to crawl in the dust. His horizon, or the extent of his travels has only been a distance of 200 meters since he was born. The furthest he can go is the nearest hospital, and even then he must be picked on a neighbor’s bike to get medical attention. Otherwise he is locked up in this tiny village day in and day out all year round. On this day Charles would not be disappointed. He was at the top of the list.

As he sat on the wheelchair for the first time ever, he could say nothing except to show a simple smile that spoke louder than any word.

Life begins at forty, it is said. For Charles Nkuzeni, a new life may have now started. His horizon has been widened, since he will be able to interact with “friends”, be able to worship at the Church, and will be able to visit the market place. He will be able to visit the Clinic when need rises. With support from the Malawi Project in conjunction with the Free Wheelchair Mission through Namikango Mission-Malawi, Charles is a proud owner of a new wheelchair that will provide mobility.

As we left Charles, the excitement behind us was immeasurable and indescribable. The impact that a wheelchair can make to an individual can be witnessed with Charles.

Wilson Isaac Tembo, Namikango Mission and Richard Stephens, Malawi Project

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Malawi Prison Services, Zomba, Malawi… The program started at 10 am, with the turning over of medical supplies, equipment, and wheelchairs to the Prison Service in Zomba. The Chief Commissioner for Malawi’s Prison System was in attendance at the function. It was the fifth donation of medical supplies from Namikango Mission with support from the Malawi Project to the prison, and it was carried on nationwide television.

One day earlier two board members from the Malawi Project, and two other church members from Indiana, visited the Zomba Central Maximum Prison. During the visit they came face to face with the need, and the problems faced by the Prison officials in trying to care for the prison population. The Medical Director for the Project made note, “Our eyes have been opened to the great need for assistance to the Prison System through our visit to this location.” Her comments came after seeing the conditions inside the prison, and the uncultivated field where there was no farm equipment with which to till the crops.

In recent years the Malawi Project has concentrated in supplying medical supplies to government hospitals, but little if any of these supplies reached the prison system. Members of the American team were surprised to see so many children behind the fenced in prison. They are the children of the inmates, and their home address is Zomba Prison. Unlike the inmates who have committed crimes that put them in this place, these children have done nothing to merit being locked inside these walls. They need basic education. The prison service provides some service to the children whose mothers are inmates, but these are not nearly enough. They need toys, books, pencils, clothes, food and love if they are to become fruitful citizens of the country. It was a timely donation that included toys, as well as medical supplies and wheelchairs.

In his remarks during the handing over ceremony, the Prisons Chief Commissioner, Mr. MacDonald Chaona, could not hide his excitement, as he could for see inmates’ lives being touched. “We experience a lot of problems in the prison, and our vision is to ensure that conditions are improved. Our experience tells us that some of our prisoners must be carried on the backs of others in order to even reach the prison hospital. The government is not able to provide each of the prisons with enough wheelchairs. With the donation of wheelchairs it means our prisoners will no longer be carried on someone’s back to and from the hospital when they are sick. Those who are physically challenged will using wheelchairs.”

According to prisons officials, Malawi has a total of thirty-two prisons, and each one has a health center where inmates have access to some degree of health care. Zomba Central Prison is the oldest, and largest, with a population of 2,000 inmates. Like any one else these prisoners need good health service, food, mobility, and love. Recognizing this need the Malawi Project, through the Namikango Mission, has donated thirty-two wheelchairs, assorted medical supplies, equipment and toys.

Namikango Missions’ Bisani Mphongolo said, “Our belief is that as a Church we have people in prison who are brothers and sisters. These people are inmates, but they are not outcasts. God loves them as He loves us. These supplies will help improve their living standards.”

Wilson Isaac Tembo and Richard Stephens

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Upon our arrival we watch as Agnes’ mother picks Agnes up on her back and labourly sits her in the wheelchair, in order to greet the guests. Agnes must weight at least 200 lbs. and her mother not over 100. Her mother explains to us that Agnes was born in 1992, and in time she was able to use her legs to walk, her mouth to a talk, and her hands just as anyone else. This was true for the first four years of her life. Then, unnoticeable, a hungry mosquito landed on the young girl’s innocent body. Little did Agnes, or her family know that she had been injected with malaria giving parasites, but it was even worse than that. It was soon determined that she had cerebral Malaria, the worst from of malaria. “From that time on she could not walk, or talk or handle anything with her hands,” her mother explained to Malawi Project’s Richard Stephens and his guests. Despite several attempts by the parents to help Agnes recover, all the efforts have lead to a fruitless destination. Because of a simple mosquito bite, Agnes’ life has gone though unspeakable pain and anguish. She spends her everyday at home – alone and lonely, from all of her friends.

Witnessing the suffering that Agnes’ mother experiences from early morning to late at night, as she tries to move Agnes from one place to another Brent Gourley, a visitor with the Malawi Project, could not hide his emotions when he saw the scene in front of him. His eyes were swimming in tears as he saw Agnes’s mother struggle to pick up Agnes, and how helpless Agnes was without the wheelchair.

“The time will come when Agnes will join all of us in heaven with able legs. She will be able to walk, and all of the pain will be gone. In the meantime God has given us an opportunity to help this girl,” Richard Stephens encouraged Agnes’s family members.

It is evident that by making mosquito nets and repellent available to children less than five years old could eliminate malaria in this third world country. In the meantime reports indicate that 40% of all people in Malawian healthcare facilities are suffering from malaria, the largest percentage being children under five years of age.

Short of ending the plagues of malaria, polio, and other diseases and accidents that bring us so many people with disabilities, the need for the wheelchairs will continue on a massive scale.

Wilson Isaac Tembo & Richard Stephens

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“Visiting Malawi for the first time I was unsure what to expect,”

“We left the capital city going south. The landscape was breathtaking, and I could hardly wait to experience it all. As we entered the trading center the streets were lined with people selling their wares. I could hardly believe there could be so many people in such a small area. Turning off the main road we headed down a bumpy, partially paved road into the gated entrance to the hospital. As we pulled up in front of the hospital it was crowed with people sitting around outside waiting to be seen by a medical person. What hit me almost immediately was the smell. It was like rotting flesh and urine, and it seemed to follow us all along the hallway. ‘Oh God,’ I pleaded silently, ‘please do not let me get sick over here, so far from home. How could there be a place like this in such a beautiful country of such beautiful people?’

“We went into the kitchen, and found there was only one spigot for cooking water, and rinsing hands for food preparation. There were only two cooks, and they were busy preparing meals that would be carried into the main hospital in buckets transported in old wheelchairs. By no means was this kitchen sanitary by western standards, and it was very clear we  were not in a western hospital.”

“Back in the states, just before leaving for Africa, we were preparing for our accreditation audit at my hospital. One of the rules relative to the storage of medical supplies is that nothing can be stacked nearer than 18 inches from the ceiling. It must be neat and orderly, with everything plainly labeled. But, as we entered the central stores I found myself in a totally different world. Due to the lack of funding, and adequate building materials this hospital’s central supply area resembled one big stack of boxes stacked as high as one can reach. It appeared to be in no certain order. I kept thinking, ‘How does one find anything in this mess?’

“As we walked to the main building I noticed the pot-hole laden driveway, and thought of those poor mothers coming in an ox cart or ambulance to give birth. They would be bounced all over the place. Again, the plight of poverty in Malawi was beyond imagination from the perspective of a westerner in this strange land.”

“Next, we reached the children’s ward. We were greeted by a friendly, warm, smiling charge nurse. As we talked she described the critical shortage of medications. They dilute their IV medications, a common practice across the land, by as much as 10 to 1. Most of the patients suffer from pneumonia, some with complications from HIV, and others with malaria and malnutrition.”

“Two of my favorite memories come for the children’s ward. The first was a young boy when I squatted down beside his bed. He had never seen a white person before. He reached out and took my hand. It seemed for a minute that he was saying, ‘I’m glad you are here. Thank you for visiting.’ He looked in wonderment at me. His little eyes sparkled as he took my hand. I remember how soft his hands were, yet I could feel each bone in his tiny fingers. Being careful not to squeeze too hard, I took his hand between my fingers and just held his hand for what seemed like the afternoon. I did not say a word, but we communicated a great deal.”

“The second moment was a young girl sitting on the floor, a complete no-no by western standards. But it was perfectly alright in this part of the world. She was suffering from dehydration and malnutrition due to the Cholera outbreak throughout the nation. I remember getting down by her and clapping every time she took a drink. The fluid in her cup as said tot be liquid nutrition. However, it resembled warm milk that had been left on the counter too long, and was beginning to curdle. Even the smell turned my stomach. But this was what she needed to drink to replenish herself. She had not been drinking that day. To my wonderment every time I clapped she took a sip, and it became a game to her. I was happy to play with her.”

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(1) “We had convened one of our field trips when a young man crawled over to where we were meeting and said to me, “I would have been at school now, but it is difficult for me because there is no one to carry me.’ He had come hoping to receive a wheelchair. We had given all of them to others.

(2) “Moments later another person arrived on the back of a barrowed bicycle hoping to receive a wheelchair.”

(3) “Yet another one arrived jumping on one leg, using a stick to steady himself. He had lost one leg when he was attacked by armed robbers.”

(4) “And finally came yet another man who had learned we had come to their village near Salima where our operations are based.”

Another trailer of wheelchairs is being prepared for shipment to Malawi. But in the meantime there are so many people watching in hopeful anticipation. Within the community of need they are still waiting.

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Dedza, Malawi … Dosidedi Filiberito is the younger brother of Donesiya Filiberito of Nkutu Village, Traditional Authority Kamenya Gwaza in Dedza District. Dosidedi is about 30 years old while the sister, Donesiya is about 35 years old. Both were victims of polio within two years of birth, and have never walked during their entire lives.

Upon receiving the wheel chair, Donesiya, the girl said, “thank God I can now go to church.” She said that although the church is only about 200 meters from her house no one was willing to carry her to church week after week after week. Now that she has a wheel chair she will be able to go to church.

Dosidedi, on the other hand said that he has been craving to go and see the new trading centre two kilometers away, but no one was willing to carry him there. He is therefore looking forward to wheeling himself to the trading centre for the first time in his life.

Both Dosidedi and Donesiya thanked the Malawi Project, and their contributors, for the donation of the wheel chairs.

Augustine Bobo,
Dzidalire Community Development Agency
Dedza, Malawi

Note: While the dreaded scourge of polio has been nearly wiped out in the west, it is still a major problem in sub-Sahara Africa. There are countless stories like this one where children and adults are helpless to get around as a result of polio.

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    Unknown Village, Southern Malawi … The African sun was beating down at nearly 100 degrees. Sweat beads slowly roll from my hat to my eyebrow where I periodically wipe them away. We turn south from the tarmac road and almost immediately it turns into a curving, pot-filled, rock cluttered obstacle course. It is obvious the “road” is more fitted to foot traffic or an ox cart at most. The land here is rolling with steep hills and cliffs dotting the area like pimples on a teen-ager’s face. After turning the wrong direction two or three times, as there are no road signs in this part of the world and few people can give you directions any farther than 15 or 20 kilometers, we pull up at the foot of a steep hill with a sharply sloping incline beckoning us to try our mountain climbing skills.
   
    I am traveling with Wilson Tembo, from the Namikango Hospital in southern Malawi, and we are on the way to report a story of a little girl who had recently been given a wheelchair by the Clinic after receiving wheelchairs from the Malawi Project and the Free Wheelchair Mission. I considered the fact that we may have discovered the end of the earth, but then I mentally remembered I had flown over this area coming up from Johannesburg two days earlier. I guess there really is a land beyond this remote area.

How Can Anyone Move Along This Path?
    Thank goodness we don’t have to go very far up the mountain. We carefully pick our way up the lower slope as I mentally wonder how anyone can carry even a small child farther up this rock maize path. And soon the rains will come. How would they ever make any kind of trip up or down this path during the rains? And the rains go on for 4 months in this part of the world.

    In the distance an unseen baby cries in a remote hut. The answer comes from the other side of the road, as a goat looks in the direction of the hut and bleats out some sort of response.  As we reach the house the family has gathered near a bamboo mat under a group of mango trees. Wilson and I lean down to keep from hitting our heads on the low hanging mangos, and move to the edge of the mat. It is there for us along with a small stool to sit on that had been brought out for me. The family sits on the ground and has little Judith Qatungwe with them.

Cerebral Malaria is Fatal 50 Per Cent of the Time
    Judith is 6 years old, and she could walk, talk and get around on her own when she was 3. Then suddenly, and with little warning, a small mosquito bite proved nearly fatal. The mosquito was a carrier for the deadly strain of malaria called Falciparum, and it can be fatal in as many of 50% of all cases. She felt victim to cerebral malaria. Young Judith was in a coma for a full week and when she seemed well, the family realized she could not walk, talk or even control many of her movements. Now she had to stay at home with her father while her mother worked in a distant school to which she walked each day. While caring for Judith the father could not go into the fields. Since he is a farmer, to stay in the house too long, would put the future food supply for the family in jeopardy. There was nothing the family could do, when her brothers and sisters went to school, except leave Judith at home alone while they worked. Neither her mother nor her father could carry her with them every day.

    Tembo reports, “The family has now told us they can take her with them when they go out of the house because of the wheelchair. She can be with her friends, and she can go where the family goes.”

Hope
    Before we left I bent down in front of the little girl and touched her unmoving leg, and looking into her eyes. I could hardly see her through the tears. My wife has had cerebral malaria at least three times. I could only look at her and imagine, “there but by the Grace of God go we.” It was so touching to know there are so many people making possible some relief to these people who have little hope and little opportunity to see any kind of assistance in the cruel lives they face. Today we participated in one of those tiny steps of hope.

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    Kasungu, Malawi … From all appearances the wheelchairs were up early and reached the site of the ceremony well ahead of the crowd. Of course, one has to realize that many in the crowd were slow getting around since nearly all of them live with severe handicaps that make rapid progress slow or impossible.

    George Banda, the Director of KODO had the wheelchairs assembled and ready when the 25 students and 5 older people with walking handicaps arrived at the school near Kasungu in the northern part of the central region of Malawi.

    Chankhanga Primary School, in the Kasungu District of Malawi, offers education to children with special needs. A spokesperson for the school reported, "Our children will now be able to attend classes daily which was not the case before because of mobility problems. Most of the time these children were absent from classes. Thank you to KODO for giving us these wheelchairs.”

    According to George Banda, “The ceremony was carried out on an area of open ground and witnessed by many who came to see what the Malawi Project has done to enable KODO to reach this far in helping these people. Thanks.”

    “As is the case with everything that is done to help the people of Malawi there are numbers of people behind the scenes who make it all possible,” reports Richard Stephens of the Malawi Project. “Free Wheelchair Mission, KODO, the Malawi Project, and a multitude of contributors make it all possible, but most are never seen. To so many people in Malawi they will never hear the names of their many benefactors, nor will they ever see them. They only know they are now in school, and they can make a different life for themselves because someone, someplace heard the call from Jesus to help those who are poor and suffering.”

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Dedza District, Malawi … The question poses all kinds of thought and response:

    “I might for a few feet.”

    “I might if the ground were level.”

    The problem comes when one realizes these conditions cannot be met.

    Sandida needs to be able to go far greater distances than just a few feet. She is now too heavy for her aged mother to carry, and the ground is seldom level enough for anyone to carry a heavy load very far without falling. Yet, it has been the plight of Sandida’s mother and family for weeks, months and in fact, for years.

    Sandida Boko is 18 years old, and comes from Nkutu village, Traditional Authority Kamenyagwaza in Dedza District, Malawi. She was a normal child until 1999 when she was attacked by epilepsy. It resulted in periodic impairment of consciousness, and this was accompanied by convulsions. Overtime, she lost her ability to walk. She was relying on her mother (the lady in a blue and gold shawl with one side of her face swollen in the picture) and her young sisters and brother to move around.

    In a nation where the average person walks 10-miles a day it is nearly impossible to get around if you cannot walk. There are no sidewalks anywhere in the Dedza district. There are almost no paved roads, outside of M-1 and one road that goes over toward the lake well south of the Trading Center. And there is no way to get around in the village, seldom even a bicycle that can supply transportation to a crippled 18-year-old.

    No wonder the gift from the Free Wheelchair Mission to the Malawi Project and on to the Dzidalire Community Development Agency for delivery to Sandida and her family was such a fantastic gift to the entire family.

    When Sandida’s mother received the wheelchair from the Dzidalire Community Development Agency she was very excited and full of praise of the Malawi Project which donated the wheelchairs. She said, “Sandida was getting too heavy for her and her other children to carry around. Sandida will from now on be able to move around on her own. She will be able to go out and mix or play with her friends on her own.  May God bless the donors of the wheelchair.”
 

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