People with mobility issues are confined to distant village huts, hidden away back streets, and empty rooms in nondescript houses. They live invisible lives, alone and lonely, unable to contribute to society, their church, their school, or their community.
The Malawi Project has tackled the problem head-on and worked to alleviate the suffering. The loss to their communities, families and themselves cost everyone. The Project has tried, when possible, to focus mobility assistance in ways that will allow the recipient to live a more normal and productive life.
All-Terrain Wheelchairs
Malawi struggles with a critical need for mobility devices. Intense poverty, a cash-starved government, and an overwhelmed medical system highlight a system unable to supply the needs of more than a very, small percentage of its population. Malawi is primarily a rural society, where most of the population travels from place to place by walking along dirt paths. Few buildings are wheelchair accessible, and even fewer village huts have doors large enough for a wheelchair to enter.
As part of its medical outreach, members of the Malawi Project sent the first wheelchairs to the country in 1997. This marked the beginning of a program that would expand over the years, ultimately reaching people nationwide.
In 2001, a joint program was begun between the MalawiProject and Free Wheelchair Mission based in Irvine, California. Asa result, entire shipping containers of wheelchairs started flowing to Malawi,with distribution soon reaching all three regions of the country. Over the nextfifteen-years over 4,500 all-terrain wheelchairs were distributed. Thesewheelchairs were built with large bicycle tires for ease of movement and repair.This design allowed easier navigation over the rough terrain of rural,mountainous Malawi.
Hand-Propelled Mobility Units
In the fall of 2015, members of the Malawi Project were introduced to Bob and Arla Gabrielse. They direct the efforts of one of 29 Mobility Worldwide production facilities focused on the construction and distribution of hand-peddled mobility units. Their plant in Demotte, Indiana is Mobility Ministries. In early 2016 the first 200 hand-propelled mobility units were on their way to Malawi. The need for mobility assistance is obvious as accidents, cerebral malaria, the lingering effects of generations of polio, as well as an inadequate medical system have left thousands with no hope of adequate movement. Combine the overwhelming need with a lack of funds to purchase mobility transportation, and the result is long term isolation and unproductive life. For a mobility-impaired population listed at 418,669 in 2018, these units offered hope for living a productive and independent life.
The program grew quickly as Mobility Ministries turned a major focus toward helping the people of Malawi. In late 2019 the Mobility Worldwide plant in Holland, Michigan joined the Demotte plant by supplying units specifically for children, and by early 2020 over 1,300 units had been shipped by the two plants. Along with a large number of canes and walkers, the effort to confront the mobility needs of Malawi is a major program for the U.S. based Malawi Project, and its Malawi sister organization, Action for Progress.
Mobility Stories
MOBILITY MEANS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
Kanthonga Village, Malawi … It is nearly time for the rains to begin. Heavy rains. Torrential rains. Rains that spread a muddy surface across the landscape, and all over anyone unable to stay distant from the water-drenched surface. For Joseph, it has always been a bad time. While the dust of the dry season had…
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother
“They might be brothers, or perhaps father and son, or maybe just neighbors in a nearby village. Regardless of their relationship, the view of a person carrying another reminded me of the song, “He ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” “As I watched them approach the row of mobility units, I knew the struggles in his past…
LIVES ARE BEING TRANSFORMED
Mchinji District, Malawi … When one loses their home, business, possessions, and livelihood to a natural catastrophe such as Cyclone Freddy, people often do not notice, or in the pain of loss overlook, what has happened to those with mobility issues. For many, this is what happened in March of this year when the longest-running…
SO MANY LIKE YOBU
The school year had just started. Children running, laughing, playing, sharing, learning. But along with the beginning of school had come the rains, the deluge that sweeps over Malawi every year. Heavy rains, constant rain, rain coming down in torrents for hours. It is an unbearable time of year for those who must crawl on…
PROPER EQUIPMENT WILL SAVE LIVES
The teams from Action for Progress (AfP) and the Malawi Project (MP) traveled to the northwest part of Lilongwe District to distribute baby packs to many expectant mothers. The hospital director for the Kabudula Community Hospital met the team near the entrance and took them directly to his office. The office was well-kept and nicely outfitted, and it was evident…
Mobility – A Dream Realized
Salima, Malawi … This center for trade and commerce near the edge of Lake Malawi was once a notorious center for the trade of human beings. Thousands were captured in the interior, brought to Lake Malawi, moved across present day Mozambique, sent to Zanzibar, then to the Arabian states and India where they were never…
LEBANON WAREHOUSE DOORS OPEN WIDE
Lebanon, Indiana … With an influx of critically needed supplies for the people of Malawi the work at the Lebanon, Indiana warehouse has accelerated to an all-time high. School Supplies The end of the school year signaled an inflow of new and used textbooks and school supplies. These arrived from schools in Zionsville, Lebanon, and…
A STORM FOR THE AGES
The bottom dropped out of the sky, and rain came down in torrents. For hours it poured. There were few places to which one could find relief as the water surged through valleys and into villages. Streets in Malawi’s commercial center were impassable, and the only grace was in climbing up nearby hillsides. Roads began…
I WANT TO OWN A GROCERY STORE
In a country where almost half of the population is out of employment at any given time, what are the chances a school drop-out will find a job?
LIFE IN PRISON
Mitole, Chiradzulo District … Action for Progress continues to crisscross the nation assisting those with mobility problems. At its heart there are many life-changing stories. Literally thousands of people have been helped, either directly or indirectly. School dropouts have gone back to school, those failing in business are now able to work with the help…
