Those in full-time employment but without access to mobility aids are given wheelchairs to help them get to work.
When Rebecca Koroma heard that we were delivering mobility aids in Bo, the second city in Sierra Leone, she picked up her old crutches and took public transport from Freetown, the capital. She had decided to travel over 174 km to get a wheelchair.
She got to Bo in the evening and was the first to arrive at the distribution centre the next morning. When she received her wheelchair, she was absolutely elated. Her joy became a spectacle – students left their lessons to watch her try her new chair. They have never seen anything like it before.
Rebecca is the secretary for the Disability Commission, but she had not had access to a wheelchair of any sort before this moment! She had explained to the local media how she was often abandoned on the streets while trying to get to work, as city transport operators did not want to put a disabled person in their vehicles.
