Jordan Gets A Wheelchair
Mozambicans walk everywhere.
Starting out before sunrise to avoid as much of the mid-day, plus 100 degree heat, as possible, they walk to retrieve water, gather food, go to school if there is a school to go to, and attempt to find work if there is any work to be found. Mozambicans walk for miles, and I literally mean, without exaggeration, miles. We spoke with a group of young girls who walked an average of eight miles a day to the nearest hand-dug well. These girls were teenagers who should have been in school yet were unable to attend due to the time constraints of retrieving water for their families.
If you cannot walk, you cannot go to work, you cannot go to school, you cannot retrieve water. Walking is a way of life in Mozambique.
Insert Jordan. Jordan is 22 years old. He lives at home with his mother and four brothers. He has never owned an Xbox; never had a backyard pool party; never gone to prom; never filled out a college application; never played little league baseball, never driven a car. He didn’t received a formal education. His family is totally impoverished. And when I say impoverished, I mean absolutely deficient in regards to any adequate supply of general living materials. Jordan’s father abandoned them seven years ago, severing all ties and means of support. Jordan’s mother, Raela, farms the land. What she can grow, they eat, yet it is hardly enough to support her family. Jordan, unlike his father, is a brave, young man. Jordan is also physically disabled in both of his legs. The locals say he has “withered legs.” Jordan, whose real name is Jordao, moves around by walking on his knees, lacing old shoes to them to help cushion the impact. He is in a constant state of being lower than everyone around him.
Jordan approached us the way a grad student approaches potential employers at a job fair. He believed we could help him, he just didn’t know if we would. Timidly, cautiously, humbly he sat with us under a blue makeshift canopy composed of tarp and string and told us his story. In the end, we asked if there was anything we could do to help. He told us that if he could get about easier, if he could sit at the same level as other men sat, then he could work. He could sew or make something to sell. He was quite determined. I suppose you’d have to be to walk around on your knees for 22 years. So we agreed to try our best to get him a wheel chair so he could sit eye to eye with his peers and support his family.
Coming back to the States, one post on Facebook and several compassionate donors later, the funds needed for Jordan’s new wheelchair were raised.
{The three photos of Jordan sitting in his new wheelchair were taken by a World Hope team member. My photos of Jordan were taken this past January on a trip with Africa Water Is Life. We are working hard to raise awareness and funds to drill clean water wells in many African nations, including the beautiful country of Mozambique, as well as provide for the basic necessities of our adopted villages as we are able.}
