The Malawi Project, Inc.

A Single Exception Caught the Attention of George Banda

The road from Lilongwe north to Kasunga is a good tarmac road. In fact it is the main road north through the tiny nation of Malawi, and the only one that is paved the entire length of the nation. Thus it carries most of the heavy truck traffic and most of the bus and walking traffic that can be seen in the northern half of the nation. This means it is not unusual to see perhaps hundreds of people walking along the roadside as one travels this major highway. It was not unusual to see many people walking along the edges of the roadway on that Tuesday in February as I traveled north from the capital. I was on the way to Kasungu District to deliver a number of wheelchairs from our offices at the Kuthadiza Disability Outreach Program offices in Salima. As always I saw old and young, people in oxcarts, others on bicycles, and always I saw many children going to school or playing along the way.

    On this day I was attracted to a small group of children near Madisi as my eyes stopped on a small boy pushing a dirty wheelchair. I pulled to the side of the road to talk to the children. I learned that the boy’s name is Fatsani Zawanje, and he is 8 years old. I learned that he was pushing the wheelchairs because one of the wheels was flat. He lived nearby so I went to talk with his mother since he was not in school, yet the school was only 2 km away. We then took the wheelchair for repairs.

    I am pleased to report the boy is now back in school at the Maranatha PVT Primary School nearby. The parents of the boy are very poor farmers. I encouraged them to follow the example my mother followed by taking me to school every day. It will now be easier for them to take young Fatsoni to school as he again has a wheelchair to help to get him to school and back.

    As I drove away from seeing Fatsoni’s smile I was reminded of Zachaus in the Bible. Along the roadside he gained great benefits from meeting the Messiah. Today along the roadside young Fatsoni has gained from a traveler who could stop and help him.
                                                                                                                                                                                                               By George Banda

*    Editors Note: The wheelchair that George Banda stopped to repair had actually been one of 1,100 wheelchairs that had been delivered and distributed to Malawi in 2006 in a cooperative program between the Free Wheelchair Mission and the Malawi Project.

    At the age of 2 James fell ill from some sort of illness. His parents were and continue to be peasant farmers and they were unable to afford to take him to the hospital. His condition continued to worsen. Today he can no longer walk.
    Because of his disability James has few dreams for his future, but his farther still dreams of him being able to attend a school for those who cannot afford the regular schools, and of him learning how to look after himself. His father looks toward the end of his own life and fears what will happen to his son after he is gone.
    With the help of the wheelchair there is a much greater chance that young James can get around, learn, and become more independent. His father can now rest much easier at night knowing there is some kind of hope down the road for his son.
    The Wheelchair was given to James and his family by George Banda and his staff at the Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach in Salima, Malawi. The wheelchair was possible by contributions from the Free Wheelchair Mission in Irvine, California and the Malawi Project.

* Balaka is an African trading center in the southern district of Malawi. It sits along the paved road from Blantyre to Lilongwe and is the commercial center for the district. The population for the Balaka district in 2001 was 270,441 and is it is estimated that in 2008 it will reach 335,449. The tiny villages that mark the countryside around the trading center are still the ancient mud-hut thatched roof villages of long ago. These villages contain no electricity, running water, telephone service and no paved roads by which they can be reached.
* The nation of Malawi is one of the poorest in the world and its heath care and educational systems are struggling to keep up with the increase in population. The HIV/AIDS scourge appears to have leveled of with about 15% of the population of the nation inflected with the disease.
* For a small boy like James there is little hope for any type of future unless he has some way to get around and fend for himself when his parents are gone. With a life expectancy that is now down to 37 years of age the life span of his parents can very well leave James an orphan in the very near future. 

    Kamuzu International Airport, Malawi … One can hardly imagine a handicapped person arriving at an International Airport only to find no wheelchair available to assist them.  Until recently this was true in Malawi, Central Africa until the donation of seven wheelchairs to the Airport Authority from the Malawi Project, and the Free Wheelchair Mission of Costa Mesa, California.

Mr. Francis Kid Mkoloma, the Operations Manager, looks on as Mrs. D. Chikakulu, Senior Human Resources Manager, shakes hands with Richard Stephens, the Director of the Malawi Project, after the presentation of the seven wheelchairs.

The wheelchairs will be distributed to the three major airports where the most flights into and out of the nation arrive; Lilongwe in the central region, Blantyre in the south, and Mzuzu in the north.

          The Kuthandiza program was started because of the disability of its director, Mr. George Chimpiko Banda who was born with disabled feet and legs. His lifelong struggle with his disability has spawned a focus on helping others who suffer from similar disabilities. George reports, "This conviction caused me to start sacrificing some of my resources to reach out to these people in the form of village to village visits, provision for some second hand cloth, wheelchairs, and tricycles to enhance mobility." George also comments about his assistance to his clients in their spiritual life, as well as a limited amount of aid in cash, and his help in HIV/Aids counseling.

         Richard Stephens, Executive Director of the Malawi Project notes, "We started working with George in 2006 and we were immediately impressed with him and with his focus on his mission to help the handicapped of his nation. In this case where a major disability slowed his life since childhood George is a real life example of someone who has turned lemons into lemonade. George has taken his own disability and turned it into a life long commitment to helping his countrymen."

        As word of his activities spread George reports that the resources he had available could not keep up with the demand, so he started soliciting funds from some well wishers. As the work continued to grow it called for bigger facilities and more funding. The Outreach organization (KODO) was started and facilities were rented on the east side of the main road near the Salima Trading Center in Eastern Malawi.

        The organization has seven trustees and ten committee members, and its outreach is beginning to spread into all three regions of the country.

         In 2006 the Malawi Project, through a partnership with the Free Wheelchairs Mission in southern California sent 100 wheelchairs to George for distribution to people he was working with. Today the Malawi Project is supplying the resources to paint and re-letter the front of his building, and plans are under way to give him additional resources and wheelchairs for his work.