Neither of them could walk. Their caregivers had been carrying them.
Not carrying them once. Carrying them — to the latrine, to a neighbor’s, anywhere either boy needed to be. That is what happens when a child cannot walk and there is no chair. The world shrinks to the size of one room.
These are not the folding chairs that get donated by the container-load and leave a child slumped sideways and sore within an hour. Mark’s and Solomon’s chairs have supportive seating, head support and a tray, measured to each boy.
A tray means a child can eat at his own chair, hold something, do school work. A chair that fits is the difference between being moved around and being able to sit up in the world.
A wheelchair is the difference between one room and the world outside it.
This is what the giving actually looks like. No office in the middle of it, no program staff, no overhead. A need, a phone call from a friend in Kampala, two men and a long drive, and a gift to a Ugandan ministry that already knew how to do the work properly.
Father’s Heart Mobility Ministry has been fitting wheelchairs in Uganda since 2006 — more than 25,000 people so far. Their founder bought the first chairs out of his own savings, at a month and a half’s salary each.
Mark and Solomon are not students at our school. We helped because the need was in front of us and it was within our power to meet it.
He Is Worthy