Matowe Village, Chiladzulu District, Malawi … One of the early distribution points for mobility units from the Malawi Project and Mobility Ministries was the Chiladzulu District in Southern Malawi near the city of Blantyre. Action for Progress had not yet been formed and operations were still being carried out from the center in the south. A deeply appreciative Ibrahim Imran was one of the first people to receive one of the new units in mid-December 2016.
That year Ibrahim was just finishing high school. “The next time you see me,” he said, “I will be watching a football (soccer) game,” and “I will have been able to start a small business.”
Now, five years later, on November 11, 2021, at 5:30 in the morning, I found him working at his small business, a business where he cuts music to CDs and sells them. On this day he was peddling his well-worn, mobility unit more than 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) to collect music from a friend.
“I asked him what his vision is now,” recalls Wilson Tembo from Action for Progress. He expressed his excitement over having the wheelchair. “Without it, I would never have been able to complete my education.”Now he dreams of opening a grocery store close to his village at the Mbulumbuzi Trading Center. He is trying to raise just MK 500,000 ($600.00) and he can begin his dream business.
Even with his current business, he is generating enough income to support himself and his parents. “My parents are old; they depend on me to provide for them. This means of mobility has made it all possible,” he proudly reports.
Pictures show a proud Ibrahim on the well-worn mobility unit that has made his dreams come true and the front tire that aptly shows the abundant use of the unit over the years.