(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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Cheats Death

Going Outside After 22 Years

    Ntcheu, Malawi … It made national news in one of the leading newspapers in the tiny African nation of Malawi. The front-page headline seemed to scream for attention, “Death Cheat – Bed Ridden for 22 years.” Farther inside a nearly full page leads off with the headline, “Ntcheu lady sees light after 22 years.” What is it that calls for such bold headlines, and such a touching story of hope and success? The story finds its origin in a working relationship between the Malawi Project, the Free Wheelchair Mission, and in this case, the Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach (KODO) operations in Salima, Malawi.

    The story began when a recent shipment of 550 all terrain wheelchairs were shipped to Malawi, thanks to supporters with the Free Wheelchair Mission and the Malawi Project. A portion of this shipment was earmarked for distribution through (KODO) in Salima, a support facility for the disabled that is helping bring various forms of mobility and independence to people who cannot get a start for themselves.

    Meanwhile in a village area far to the south of Salima in the Ntcheu District lived a woman who had been bed ridden for 22 years because of her disability and the fact that there was no one to take her outdoors. Twenty-two years locked in the invisible prison walls of a single, tiny bedroom. Twenty-two years of never seeing friends walking within just feet of the outside of your tiny hut. Twenty-two years of never watching a sunrise or sunset, or even breathing in the fresh air that drifted so very near to her confined dark hut.

    George Banda, the administrator of KODO writes, “In spite of her own disability Dorothy traveled 400 kilometers in order to pick up a wheelchair when they arrived in Salima, and return with it to the small village.”

     Now it is possible for her to greet friends as they pass the front door, sunrise and sunset have returned to being part of her life, and she can now see and feel the gentle breezes that wisp past her hut,. All of this is now reality because a number of people combined their resources to bring mobility into her life.

    One can no longer wonder why the newspaper headlines seemed to scream out such a wonderful, inspiring success story.

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Wheelchair Arrives for Bicycle Repairman

    Mukuti Village, Malawi… Ndiche Kosa is from the village of Mukuti 1 in Senga Bay, Malawi. He is a bicycle repairman, and he has been paralyzed from the waist down for as long as he can remember. One can hardly imagine the feeling each time he repairs a bicycle for someone, then watches them ride away free to ride and explore the world while he remains confined by his disability.

    When Samantha Ludick and her staff at the Clinic at the Gate and Cool Runnings Resort on Lake Malawi presented Ndiche with a brand new wheelchair he was all smiles. It was a gift from the Malawi Project and the Free Wheelchair Mission.

    One of the staff members questioned the big smile that seemed to spread across his entire face.

    “Why do you smile so big, it is only a wheelchair,” he asked? It was easy for them to say; they have legs and can get around.

    Ndiche responded, " Today is my happiest day. I have been fixing bicycles for people in my village for many, many years, yet I have never been able to ride a bicycle. If I were to want to go some place I would have to have to wait for my son, brother or neighbor to assist me. Now today THANK YOU to Free Wheelchair Mission, Malawi project and ‘miss Cool’ I will be able to get myself to where ever I wish to go. This makes me very happy, this is why I smile so big. ZIKOMO.”

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    Salima, Malawi… Just east of the central portion of the Salima Trading Center in Malawi, Africa stands Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach, or KODO. It is a humanitarian organization that has been formed with the purpose and focus of helping those with physical disabilities. George Banda, a victim of a physical handicap that has plagued him since birth, operates the facility. Instead of succumbing to his problems George has worked to overcome them. He has not only provided for himself and his family, but has worked diligently to assist others with physical disabilities through the organization he founded for this purpose, KODO.

    Today KODO is training a number of Malawians with physical disabilities in various ways they can become self sufficient and self-supporting through the learning of trades that will provide them with an income.

    In a recent shipment of 550 wheelchairs, that included a number designated for distribution through KODO, the assembly of the chairs were carried out by those with physical handicaps themselves, again reflecting a pattern of Malawians doing what they can do for themselves and the Malawi Project assisting in areas they cannot achieve without outside assistance.

    Pictured are George Banda, President of KODO, some of the workers working inside the facility near Salima, and workers with disabilities, putting together new wheelchairs for others with disabilities.

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Ishmael Tchale Can Dream Great Dreams

Mwale Village, Malawi… The new school year is beginning, and children in western nations often start it with moans and complaints. For them summer is over, and it is time to get up at the break of dawn, gather up their homework, and head out the front door toward the school classroom.

In tiny Mwale Village, Malawi 10-year-old Ishmael Tchale is not complaining about going to school. In fact he is excited with the opportunity. He was disabled by malaria when he was a young baby. Like most Malawi children he loves to go to school. There they learn and grow and have the opportunity to move into good jobs as teachers, business people, medical people and other areas where they can raise a family in a better environment than their parents have been able to accomplish. Education is their only hope for a better future, and like his friends, young Tchale is aware of this fact. Too, he likes to go fishing with his friends at the river near his home, but with his condition he has been unable to do either of these. There can be no dreams for a crippled boy in this impoverished nation of 13,000,000 people. Over 90% of the people live in tiny, remote, mud-hut villages, and the average income means the village family of a child like Tchale will not earn enough money in their entire lifetime to be able to purchase one single wheelchair.

But now all of this has changed, thanks to the arrival of 550 wheelchairs to Malawi, from the Free Wheelchair Mission, and Malawi Project. Ishmael is the proud recipient of a nice, new, shiny all terrain wheelchair. Now he can go to school every day, not just on the days when someone would carry him the 2.5 kilometers to the school. Now he can dream great dreams about his future. Now he can go down to the river and fish with his friends. His friends are happy too, since to have him with them while they fish they do not have to carry him on their backs.

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Edson is Going to School

    Most readers will not remember Edson. He was simply one small boy in over 1,000 people who received a wheelchair from the Malawi Project during the past four years. In fact, he was the first person who received a wheelchair through Samantha Ludick and the Clinic at the Gate in Senga Bay, Malawi.

    In a recent report from Ludick she observes, "The fact about Edson is that he wasn’t going to school when I first met him. He was too heavy for his siblings to carry from school. Then Edson received his wheelchair, and now we have fabulous news. Edson started back to school, and has continued his studies and attendance. Now he is going to Para Secondary School after passing standard 8. It’s great news for his father because he was told his son would not amount to anything, and would not survive to his senior years."

Ludick concludes, "His proud father came to tell me his son had passed his school marks, but had a problem with his wheelchair as it was not doing so good. Now he needed to go a bit further to get to secondary school. Could I help? Naturally I helped. I put new tires and a new seat on the wheelchair and he is now going to Secondary school. It is a great achievement and a real success story."

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