Street Talk

Issue 00478

July 21 - 27, 2007

issn 0856 - 9135

www.arushatimes.co.tz

Street Talk

Wheeling the chairs for the disabled

Once again the Wheelchair Foundation of the United States, through the Ramoni family’s Conservation Foundation Trust and the Tanzania Big Game Safaris have donated another consignment of 100 wheelchairs to the disabled people of Arusha and Manyara regions. The handover took place in Monduli.

By Raymond John

Local communities here have this tendency to conceal their handicapped children and other family members from the public. It takes lots of efforts in order to trace these unfortunate persons and keep them in special institutions such as rehabilitation centers.

And once the handicapped people have been taken into these centers, their family members seem to wash their hands on the matter and forget them for good. Here we take care of 61 handicapped persons and we really appreciate when donations like these wheel chairs come along to assist in individual movements of these people.

Anna Mollel
Coordinator
Monduli Rehabilitation Center

Our society has totally forgotten handicapped people or their predicaments. We are grateful to the wheelchair foundation for at least enabling us to move about using these wheelchairs. Now handicapped people can attend school, church and visit relatives without being too dependent on others for movement.

Joseph Ngoidima
Miserani Location
Monduli

I am aware that, in order to send these wheelchairs down, our benefactors sacrificed a lot. May God bless them for that. Personaly I used to rely on a walking stick now I will throw that away and embark on a wheelchair for an even easier movement.

Meanwhile let our own people, society and government borrow a leaf from the WF and the Ramoni family in remembering the handicapped people.

Elpendo Andrea
Magugu - Babati
Manyara

Acquiring a wheelchair for me it sounds like a dream. These items are not only expensive but not easily available locally either. I was maimed for life about 10 years ago when a buffalo struck me while grazing cattle in Ngorongoro.

Since then I gave up hope and lived a life of total dispair. The wheelchair given to me today has pumped into me a new lease of life. Many thanks to our benefactors who not only donated the chairs, but also took the pain of hiring transport to take them to our homes.

Lenariku Lembeko
Ngorongoro District

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