MOBILITY – A MOST REMARKABLE EVENT
Kayemmbe Village, Malawi… The team from Action for Progress (AfP) and members from the Malawi Project came to this village the week earlier to distribute food. Crops had failed in this area and the grain bins were nearly empty. A large crowd had gathered, much larger than expected.
Because of a misunderstanding too many people had come. Only the widows and orphans were on the schedule to receive food on this trip. When they were given an explanation, the people quietly accepted the answer, and left to wait for another day, even though it was obvious many of them were leaving hungry.
Now the team from AfP had returned and brought Richard Stephens of the Malawi Project with them. He had come to observe the well-organized distribution of food and mobility units to those who came for the second week. The crowd seemed to be more than twice as big as the week before, but this time the AfP team was ready. After the distribution of the food packets, the group turned its attention to the distribution of the mobility units. Stephens notes his feelings at watching yet another distribution of units.
“I have been watching these mobility unit distributions since the first of them came to Malawi from Indiana. Now the count is over 2,000 and I never can hold back that lump in my throat as I watch people climb into the seat of their new mobility unit. For a few moments they must learn how to hand peddle them. Then they move with greater and greater confidence, and before long they are proudly peddling down the road toward their villages.”
“You see on their faces the joy at having a new life, one of much more independence, one of being able to go to market, visit friends, attend a soccer game, and worship in the nearby church assembly. So many of them never imagined this day would ever come. For them it is a dream, but a dream that has come true. I am excited every-time I see one of these events and a life changed in such a remarkable way.”
“For several years, we have had a Project theme. It goes like this, ‘It is not about the program, the plan, or the project, it is about the people.’ There are few things we do where this reality is seen more fully than when we give someone a mobility unit.”
Another surprise with this distribution was to watch the excitement on the faces of the villagers who had come to witness the event. They appeared almost as happy as the person receiving the unit. After all, when one in the village suffers everyone suffers, and when one is successful, all are successful.