Yomusa is 23-years-old and currently lives with her family in Bulawayo. Young Yomusa has Cerebral Palsy and shares the same Spinal Cord Injury as her brother. All her life she had to depend on her family and friends for support but unfortunately her parents are not employe and solely rely on a local church’s donations.
Yomusa was given a wheelchair but the wheelchair was too big for her. You may think “Well…at least she has one. She can move around now so that is a plus.” When in reality, her first wheelchair was so big that it couldn’t even fit through their front door. An ill-fitted Nepalslider-v3wheelchair can result in sores throughout the body, produce horrible pressure ulcers (which are wounds from pressure) and even poor spinal support which affects people like Yomusa with spinal injuries.
Just to put it into perspective, it has been recorded that:
*”Among this population, currently believed to number between 225,000 and 300,000 individuals living in the United States, the annual incidence of pressure ulcers has been estimated to be between 23% and 40%, with a lifetime incidence of approximately 95% Results showed that individuals spent an average of 9.2 hours per day in their wheelchairs, a significant amount of time.”
As a result, Yomusa avoided her large wheelchair and instead laid on a mattress for most of her life…until EquallyAble gave her a special wheelchair.
So what makes our wheelchairs so unique?
They are built to move in tough terrains
All wheelchairs are fully adjustable to fit different body types
They are made with low-cost materials so if the user ever needed to pay for a part, the fix would be inexpensive
The wheelchairs provide full spinal support.
It is estimated that approximately 105 million people across the world need a wheelchair that is safe and appropriate for use in the place where they live.
“Many individuals in developing countries lack access to the outside world,” our founder Mohammed Yousuf says. “Our hope is that these wheelchairs will facilitate individuals to seek the education and employment they need to lead successful and independent lives.”
Please help us continue our wheelchair programs by donating today.
Read another story about a brave individual with Cerebral Palsy here
EquallyAble is dedicated to helping and empowering not only children but adults of all ages. We are dedicated to creating new and effective ways for accessibility to local schools and universities. Quotes/Pics taken from our amazing partners at Motivation UK
*Fogelberg, Donald et al. “Decisions and Dilemmas in Everyday Life: Daily Use of Wheelchairs by Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury and the Impact on Pressure Ulcer Risk.” Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitation 15.2 (2009): 16–32. PMC. Web. 28 June 2018.
