The Girl in the Wheelbarrow

She Goes Everywhere in the Wheelbarrow

    Where ever they go she goes in the wheelbarrow. When they go to the trading center, she goes in the wheelbarrow. When they go to church, she goes in the wheelbarrow. When they walk along the road, she goes in the wheelbarrow.

    The girl in the wheelbarrow is 19-year-old Agnes Kumbuyo. She is from the Kauluka Village, Mdunga Area, Tribal Authority T. A. Wimbe, in the Kasungu District of north-central Malawi, Central Africa.

    At the age of 5 little Agnes contracted malaria, and from this common, but deadly, disease she contracted this disability. She is the third child in the family, and she is not in school since there has been no mobility aids up to now. No way to get her around. Hence her family had no choice except to put her in the family wheelbarrow.

Now it Has All Changed
Now, thanks to supporters in the U.S. including the Free Wheelchair Mission, the Malawi Project, and the Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach in Salima, Malawi she is freed from the cruel laughter many of the other children taunted her with when she was moved about in a wheelbarrow. Richard Stephens, Executive Director of the Malawi Project commented, "It is so sad to see this kind of story repeated over and over in a land that is so poor that the poor have no place to turn. I cannot imagine what this little girl has gone through because of the lack of a wheelchair in which her family could help to get her from place to place. Now, with the ability to get around who knows how much she may excel?"

    After this last picture was taken little Agnes was moved from the old wheelbarrow into a nice new shinny wheelchair.

 

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