Do you have a hero? No, I don’t mean a star baseball player or a winning quarterback. I mean a real hero. I mean one who does something so generous, so magnanimous that many lives are improved.
Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah is one of those life-changers. And he is indeed one of my heroes. Emmanuel was born in the West African nation of Ghana. Sadly, he was born with a malformed leg. Sad, but not unusual. In that nation of 20 million people, 2 million are disabled. That’s 10% of the population, 10 % who were traditionally thought to be unworthy of life. So many of these less-than-perfect babies were poisoned, or left to die in forested areas or hidden in homes. And if they were allowed to mature and grow, they often had no recourse but to beg in the streets.
Although Emmanuel’s father abandoned the family when he saw his son’s deformity, Emmanuel’s mother refused to harm her son, so he grew to adulthood knowing he could be productive and wanting to prove that others in similar situations were also able to contribute to their society. Upon hearing about the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a charitable group in California, Emmanuel contacted them, requesting a bicycle.
A bicycle, for a one-legged man? What was he thinking? Well, what he was thinking was to ride across his country, 380 miles, to show that citizens of Ghana with handicaps still deserved to be treated as viable citizens. Emmanuel did indeed meet this goal and is credited with single-handedly changing the way handicapped folks are treated in Ghana. He did this not only by riding to raise awareness, but he also provided invaluable aid to his fellow residents of Ghana by obtaining wheels for them, too.
No, not bicycles with wheels, but rather chairs with wheels.
So, isn’t that a “wheelchair?”
No, again, not the typical type of wheelchair you see here in the United States.
Can you picture one of those ever-present white plastic porch chairs? You know, the inexpensive ones you see around your neighborhood…or even on your own porch…during the summer. That’s the type of chair now being used by many of the physically disabled folks in Ghana because Emmanuel helped forge a long-distance relationship with the US-based Free Wheelchair Mission. Who would have thought that one of those plastic chairs could be motorized in such a way as to provide freedom for its owner? And for only 59 dollars and 20 cents.
“Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs to the impoverished disabled in developing nations.”* To date 436,380 wheelchairs have been shipped to 76 countries, Ghana, of course, being one of them.
May we all have vision to see the miracles present among us, whether those miracles be courageous “world-changing” bike riders or simple plastic chairs which provide mobility, and a higher quality of life, for those in need.
-- Contributed by Bonnie Rhoads, ANE Peace and Justice Committee Member, Palmyra COB
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Want to know more about this amazing man? Emmanuel’s incredible life, emphasizing his tireless work on behalf of others, was highlighted in a recently-made documentary film, the DVD form of which is now available.
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