WHEELCHAIR MOBILITY TO ENELESI WEBU
It has been said, “Disability is not inability.” I am sure this is a very motivating statement that disabled people are excited to hear. However, think of the other side of this thought. Think of a young girl in a very remote village of the southern part of a small country like Malawi who has both legs and hands paralyzed. Who can foresee any ability in such a child to attend classes without support? What ability can come out of such a child if she is not given a hand in the absence of both parents, while old grandparents are raising her while at the same time they themselves depend on people’s handouts.
If you were to go through the small hut village of Majawa west of Namikango Mission, in traditional Authority Mulumbe-Malawi, you would find young Enelesi, sitting on the ground in the sun. This is not by her desire. It is because her disability has brought inability.
Enelesi was born in the family of Mr. & Mrs. Webu 22 years ago. She was healthy, charming, and intelligent. Like most children she enjoyed life with her father and mother for the seven years. Then her father divorced her mother. Enelesi started school, but unexpectedly and unpredictably both of her legs were paralyzed. Shortly after both of her hands followed suit. As if that was not enough, both parents passed away starting with her father in the year 1994 and her mother in October, 2008. This left her with only her grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Pirato. The old fellow could not manage carrying young Enelesi to school after all of the efforts to treat her proved futile.
When the news of Enelesi’s suffering reached Namikango Mission I paid a surprise visit to her one Tuesday afternoon and brought mobility means, a new wheelchair that had only recently arrived at the mission.
Like water under a growing plant reaching out to put down roots, aid from the Malawi Project is reaching to the furthest tip of communities where the actual need is. To Enelesi, disability had proved to be inability. She could not attend classes, no church services, no socializing with friends; she was slowly and surely becoming idle each passing day. Perhaps for some disability means inability, it is untrue in this case. Now Enelesi can attend classes, church services and many other activities.
With a broad smile that reveals the excitement inside her, Enelesi shows how happy she is when I moved her around her home yard in the new wheelchair. “The only thing that Enelesi has been able to do when she needs something is to cry out. She cannot speak now,” her grandmother told me. She further said, “Now Enelesi will be going to Church where in the past, some of the members from her church had to come here for prayers on Sundays.” Enelesi’s grandmother ran out of words as she witnessed Enelesi’s spiritual life opening up again. It is written, “Helping to change the Nation” and “Serving the World” in the Mission Statements of the Malawi Project and the Free Wheelchair Mission. This can be witnessed in a small country of Malawi with Enelesi Webu.
WILSON ISAAC TEMBO
For: Namikango Mission
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