During recent meetings between the two groups in California the final touches were put on another shipment of 550 wheelchairs to be sent in the next few weeks to Malawi. The wheelchairs will be distributed through the Malawi Project’s southern warehouse in Thondwe, Malawi at the Namikango Mission and Maternity Hospital. Upon arrival in the country organizations throughout Malawi will be notified, and the wheelchairs will be picked up for distribution to those needing them.

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I met a 9-year-old village boy who has a burning desire to be educated and crawls to school.  Fredson Mtentha of Nkanda Village is the boy, and  he has never walked. While some of us complain of worn out shoes, old-fashioned clothes, and boring channels on television, Fredson’s worries about how he can get to school. His burning desire propels him to crawl a 4-kilometer stretch of dusty road in order to reach school each day. Even though he tries in his classes, he lags far behind, and at the age of 9, Fredson remains in the first grade of a primary school. His case is a symbolic representation of many young boys and girls who are struggling with being unable to attend classes due to mobility issues and a lack of suitable wheelchairs.

At Namikango Mission each day is different from the others, and each day brings its own new challenges. Today I had to tell a 9-year-old boy that, at least for now, we do not have a wheelchair for him to go to school.  It’s been a painful day.

Report by Wilson Isaac Tembo

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The entire situation changed with a single wheelchair, thanks to a cooperative program being that is being carried out between four aid groups. It started with the Free Wheelchair Mission in Irvine, California, an international aid organization distributing wheelchairs around the world. The Wheelchair Mission has joined hands with the Malawi Project to deliver 2,300 wheelchairs to Malawi over a four-year period. The Malawi Project, in turn, focuses its attention on helping a number of in-country organizations with agricultural, medical and educational aid, including wheelchairs. Two of these organizations are the Namikango Mission and Maternity Hospital in southern Malawi, and the Dzidalire Community Development Agency in Dedza, Malawi. A single wheelchair started passing along through all of these hands until it finally arrived in the Dzidalire Agency, who moved it along to Mr. Makhuwila. A long trip and a lot of hands, but success was achieved through the efforts of all of these groups.

Mr. Makhuwila expresses his appreciation to the Malawi Project, and in turn to all of these groups, for the wheel chair. He was overwhelmed with joy with his wheelchair. He said, “I am very happy because the Malawi Project, through Mama Kadzamira has come to my rescue. I was unable to move around during the past six months. They have now given me a wheelchair that will enable me to move around and continue pursuing my pastoral work among people of Area 25. I thank the Lord for his mercy and the gift of the wheel chair. May God bless the Malawi Project, and Dzidalire Community Development Agency.”

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Requests are handled through the Malawi Project warehouse manager in Thondwe, Malawi, Wilson Tembo. This is one of the major distribution sites for supplies going into Malawi, and in the past two years has handled two of the shipments of wheelchairs.

Suzi Stephens, Malawi Project’s Medical Director, and one of the founders, notes, “The request for wheelchairs has increased many times over each year as more and more people throughout Malawi have learned they are available through this program. They are increasing as well in all of the agencies and groups we are assisting. We even receive requests at our offices in the U.S. on a weekly basis. The need is just so immense, it is hard to explain to someone who has never traveled to this part of the world.”

The most recent shipment of wheelchairs reached the warehouse the middle of 2010, and a recent request was sent to Wilson Tembo to reply with the inventory of wheelchairs still in the warehouse. Since a picture is worth a thousand words the following pictures vividly reflect his answer. The first picture is the wheelchair inventory in September 2010, and the second picture is that same location today.

Dick Stephens, one of the founders of the Project indicates, “Another shipment of wheelchairs is waiting to be sent to Malawi. Free Wheelchair is anxious to work with us. We have a great, on-going relationship with them. All we need is the final $5,000.00 that for transportation costs.”

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The minibus conductor needed the fare, so he pleaded for me to jump into his bus. The man even decreased the bus fare by 10%. Still I felt I should not jump into that bus. I went to a nearby grocery to get something to eat. There would be many more buses, and I was certain I would still get a lift on another bus.

I went to the shop, taking my time. Finally it was time to go outside and find a ride. A few meters from the shop another minibus drove up and stopped. A man from this bus was trying to persuade me to jump into his bus, and the conductor who had talked to me earlier came to where I was standing, and pleaded that I go on his bus. I could not believe this minibus had been waiting for me all this time. I felt that I had no option but to yield to the man who had waited for me, and even lowered his fare by 10%. As soon as I was on board the bus started off. There had only been room for one more passenger. Little did I know of the importance of what the conductor had done, or the importance of my decision to choose this particular bus out of all of those who were passing along the road that night.

After traveling for 12 kilometers, the bus stopped, and some people got off. There was someone sitting next to me who also getting off at this point, and this gave me an opportunity to be closer to a man who had been two spaces away from me. The bus started up and sped to another stopping point.

At this location, the man on my right hand got off the bus. It was only then that I realized the man was crippled. He crawled out of the bus on his hands and knees, and continued on his hands and knees into the people milling around. I watched in disbelief. In moments I knew the reason behind my entire trip was being summarized by the crawling, crippled man.

I had left my place early in the morning on the way to Namikango to collect some wheelchairs for crippled people. The wheelchairs had been handed over to me by the good graces of the Malawi Project, the Namikango Mission, and the Free Wheelchair Mission. While I was thinking of trips to villages looking for people who would benefit from these wheelchairs, just there right before my eyes someone was crawling. The message was clear.

I immediately requested that the minibus driver stop for a few more minutes, while I rushed after the crippled man. I obtained the particulars of his physical address, and contact number for his next of kin. There was little time to chat but I assured him that I was going to come and visit him in the near future. As I got back into the bus I could not help but thank the Lord whom I felt had sent His angels to persuade me to catch that particular minibus.

Three weeks later, I had managed to organize transport, and picked up a wheelchair to deliver to the crippled man, a Mr. M. Chamba. We drove right to the place he had been dropped the day I met him. I looked around, searching for him, and eventually found his wife. The poor woman did not know what it was that I had for him, but in faith they sent someone with a bicycle to fetch her husband and bring him to a shopping center. The van I had used had been parked next to a supermarket.

Mr. Chamba arrived, little suspecting who it was that wanted to see him. I reminded him where we had met, and that I had assured him I was going to visit him. He had no words and gazed in disbelief as I handed him the gift of a wheelchair from The Malawi Project.

Dr. Smith Chibaka & Richard Stephens

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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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