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Orthographic map of Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By David Muchui
Meru
The Persons with Disabilities Act, 2003 which formed the National Council for Persons with Disabilities seeks to see that the disabled get equal opportunities by ensuring to the maximum extent possible that they obtain education and employment, and participate fully in sporting, recreational and cultural activities and are afforded full access to community and social services.
However, many persons with physical disabilities remain holed up in houses and home compounds, immobile and unable to move about interact and participate in nation building.
Inaccessibility of mobility aids is a major hindrance even as the law seeks to have equal rights for all regardless of their physical disabilities.
The inability to move about has denied many accident or polio survivors a chance to compete fairly with others in the society contributing to poverty and stigma among those with physical disabilities.
The resultant poverty among those with disabilities makes it difficult for them to afford mobility aids and equipment such as walkers, crutches and wheelchairs.
Crutches for Africa founded by an American Polio survivor is working to help those with physical disabilities get moving once again by donating mobility aids.
When David Talbot and his wife Candice, a photographer, visited Uganda in 2005, they encountered polio survivors struggling to move about by using crude walking sticks, hopping, crawling or dragging themselves; which led to the birth of Crutches 4 Africa.
“We had travelled to Uganda to Uganda in 2005 to for a documentary project. It is then that I encountered a woman who was a polio survivor struggling to access her Church by hopping. It came to mind that we have a lot of idle walking aids back in America. This inspired us to look for ways of shipping walking aids to Africa,” David recounts.
Since then, over 45, 000 pieces of walking aids including walkers, canes, crutches and wheelchairs have been distributed in Africa with Kenyans getting over 12, 000 pieces.
Talbot notes that Crutches for Africa has been collecting the walking aids from American citizens before shipping them to Africa for distribution to the needy.
“Many people at home have had a mobility device from a twisted ankle, ski accident or operation that they used lightly and no longer needed. We saw these at garage sales, in dumpsters and unfortunately in roll-off containers headed to landfills. We have been asking people to the aids that are idle and it’s making an impact,” he adds.
The crutches for Africa Founder says that they also raise money to meet shipment costs of the mobility aids and rely on partners to store and distribute them in the country.
David and his wife Candice have been distributing the mobility devices in different part of Kenya including Meru where they gave away crutches, walkers and wheelchairs.
“We desire to give the walking aids free to help people who are trapped by immobility. We want to get them out of their houses. This will give them an opportunity to participate fully in their communities,” says David.
The jovial man notes that the organization intends to collect one million mobility devices and see them distributed in Africa.
“We have done a lot of travelling and we are moved when we encounter people who struggle to use their hands in moving about. We want to see these people absorbed in the community so that there is no longer stigma,” he explains.
Ms Joyce Kanini of Meru North Disabled Community Centre notes that field visits have established that persons with disabilities who do not have mobility aids are mostly locked up in houses denying them freedom of movement.
“This is a great milestone for people who are disabled. Many will recover from social stigma and make them independent,” she said.
The Meru County disabled community Chairman Mr Joshua Mburung’a says that the initiative by crutches for Africa will see many paraplegics come out of their hide outs.
Candice Talbot says their passion to distribute walking aids to the disabled has contributed to the empowerment of many in the continent.
“I am glad to be part of this passion to see people who could not move get on their way again. We are amazed at what we are able to do with the crutches,” she states.
David calls on everyone in the society to do something to help those trapped in their houses due to disabilities get back to normal lives.
“People take mobility for granted that they do not think about it. Just think about it for a moment, if wake up one morning and can’t jump out of your bed to go about with your day. This calls for each one to do something,” he concludes.
The Crutches for Africa founder contracted polio in 1955 when he was two and half years but slowly overcame the disease progressing from using a wheelchair, crutches and leg braces before regaining unaided mobility.
He says the organization targets to collect and distribute one million mobility devices in Africa to alleviate suffering among people with disabilities.
ENDS…