According to Wilson Tembo, Malawi Project’s representative on the ground in Malawi, the problems of lack of mobility resources begin when the children are very young. “It is not unusual,” he reports, “for young people with mobility problems to see the road to an education closed before their eyes. Because of this they grow up with dented ambitions that bear no fruit. It not only happens with young people, it continues through life for those who cannot afford a means with which to move about. Andrew Siti knows the pain of hopelessness all too well. His wheelchair was damaged in 2004, and for the past 14 years this 37-year-old father of 4 has been unable to provide for his family. He has depended on his wife to provide for them from a very small business she operates. He has seen no way he could help, and no possibility this would ever change. We have come across numerous cases where people with mobility physical challenges have failed to attain education. They have been rendered destitute. They cannot run a business or provide for their families.”
Andrew comes from Chiwembu Village in Mwanza District, and while it is just 83 kilometers (51.6 miles or 44.8 nautical miles), from his village to Malawi’s commercial and business center in Blantyre to the east, it has little or no value to him or his family in their plight. With so many people in need of mobility assistance, the need outstrips the resources of the government, village, and family, leaving only helplessness.
Recently this all changed for Andrew as the Malawi Project and its partner in mobility, Mobility Ministries in Demotte, Indiana, a division of Mobility Worldwide, came to his rescue with one of Demotte’s brand new mobility units. On that day, not only did everything change for Andrew, thirty other people with similar problems received life-changing mobility units. One unit at a time these two aid organizations are changing the future for people all over Malawi.