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.
