Stories:
Helmond Province
Afghanistan
February 09, 2005
Helmond Province is one of the southern Provinces of Afghanistan. This province is housing one of the largest number of disabled people throughout Afghanistan. One reason for this big tragedy is war, internal conflicts and landmines. The other reason for it is Polio. For some reason the children in this province have been suffering from polio for a long time. Some of these children suffered from polio and became disabled. Now, they are grown up people and some of them are working as government employees. A middle age lady was sitting in a chair away from people in the distribution place in Helmond. She remained so calm during the distribution of these wheelchairs. At the end of the distribution, when almost all the disabled who came to the distribution place received wheelchairs, she asked for a wheelchair. Everyone thought she was asking for a wheelchair for someone else because she was just sitting on a chair very calmly. When she was asked to bring the disabled person to get the wheelchair she said she was disabled herself. LIFE donated a wheelchair to her. She said she became disabled due to polio when she was young. Both her legs were affected. After some treatment her one leg started working a little bit but the other leg remained totally disabled. She said she is a teacher in a school and never married. She is living with her brother and he is taking her to and from school in his car every day. She said she is spending her salary on the education of her brothers children. She said she is paying her brother for the fuel for his car because her brother is a taxi driver and he spends his time and fuel to take her to school. She said if she gets a wheelchair then she will use the wheelchair to go school by herself and will not use the car of her brother. She said she will use the money she is paying to her brother for the fuel for educating a disabled child. She said she never thought of using a wheelchair because her brother was taking her to school and back home and she is using crutches while she is in school or at home. Now she thinks that if she uses a wheelchair instead of her brothers car to go to school she will be able to educate at least one disabled child. LIFE staff appreciated her thinking and donated a wheelchair to her. She thanked LIFE staff for donating a wheelchair to her and said, LIFE and Wheelchair Foundation will be equally partnering with her in educating a disabled child by donating this wheelchair to her.
