Children who need wheelchairs
We found Ibrahim Jaward in Salaema village about 20 miles south of Moyamba on the road to Shenge. Our visit was requested by Paramount Chief Doris Corker in Shenge. He has never been to school because of his disability. He is 14 years old.
Teachers say he is 'sick' and they cannot cope with him in school. In late March 2016 we sent a wheelchair with a hand operated chain which drives the wheels (in Sierra Leone they call them 'PETs' - personal energy transportation). This mobility will give him an independence he has never known before and the chance to go to school. The 'PET' cost 1,500,000 leones (just under £200) with further costs of around 300,000 (£40) for our wonderful volunteer Hamid to deliver it from Freetown using public transport. The PET reached Ibrahim on Friday 25 March 2016. Here he is riding it for the first time. Later, Ibrahim moved to the Mustard Seed Foundation children's home in Moyamba where he is studying in the primary school and doing well.
In 2017 PETs were renamed 'mobility carts'. We now have a partnership with Mobility Worldwide in the USA who provide the mobility carts free of charge. We fund their delivery to disabled students, assembly and subsequence repairs. By May 2018 we had delivered 21 mobility carts to disabled children and adults living in some of the remost parts of Sierra Leone. In January 2018 alone ten mobility carts and four wheelchairs were delivered by volunteers Chernor Barrie and Sulaiman Bah to disabled children and adults living in small coastal villages on the island of Sherbro and the Turtle Islands.