Patience Got a New Wheel-chair…And a New Lease of Life Too!

I got to know Patience Ihetu on September 10th through one of my protégés, Imaobong Olugbenga who had sent a very emotional message to me, asking that I help her friend.

Her whatsapp message read, “Hello Mom! I have something very important that I want to share with you. I have a friend, her name is Patience Ihetu. She's physically challenged - crippled since when she was a child. She's in her 30s now. She wasn't put in any school because of her condition but her other siblings are educated. I met her when I started my adult education classes some years ago where I thought her how to read and write. She can now read and write. She wanted to further her education but for lack of sponsorship she delved into nail publishing. That's the business that she's doing now. When I met her 10 years ago she was selling telephone recharge cards by the roadside.

Unfortunately for her, a man deceived her, promised to marry her and lured her into sex. She got pregnant and gave birth to a son. The little boy is about 3 years old now. She finally discovered that the man is married. He ran away until Patience got a National Radio or Human Rights agency involved and they helped her fish out the man and made him promise to take responsibility. But according to her, he is not regular in giving them financial assistance.

Another challenge is that her wheelchair is very old and rickety. She's really suffering, struggling to go to her place of business daily. She also wants to expand her business or go to school and work in an office. She equally needs help for her son.

Mom, I know that you're a kind-hearted woman. Even though you may not have facility for her kind of person, I know that you may have friends or associates that can help this noble lady. She's a good-natured person and won’t disappoint you.”

Moved with compassion, I sent a reply to Imaobong asking about Patience’s address and stuffs. Honestly, I didn’t have any resources to help her out of her present predicament. But I resolved that I would not leave her the way she was.

Hers is one clear case of the discrimination and rejection faced by people living with disability. Or how does one explain a situation where parents refuse to send their daughter to school while her siblings are able to acquire goo education, even up to tertiary level, all because she is physically challenged? What other excuse do they have other than the fact that they believe she is liability and will amount to no good, hence they concluded that there is no need to invest in her future, either through education or skill acquisition. Any wonder then that another man easily took advantage of her vulnerability and decided to exploit her sexually; seeing that her immediate family already treated her like a piece of trash

In Patience I saw a World Pulse Sister and Friend, a woman with a powerful story; the story of strength, resilience and hope. In her I saw an irrepressible woman who, against all odds is determined to give her life a meaning. Even though l had not met her, I saw in her a potential success story if given minimal support.

My first step was to look for how to get her a new wheelchair in other to ease her pain and strengthen her resolve to succeed. So, I put a call through to some friends working with people living with disability, especially our World Pulse Amazon- Celine Osukwu. I was referred to some non-governmental organizations but none of them had what we needed. Another friend asked me to go to the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), a department created at the State Secretariat by the Lagos State government in Nigeria to help create awareness on the plight of people living with disability as well as galvanize support and empowerment for them.

Finally, I got to LASODA in Alausa, Lagos and it was such a relief to realise that my schoolmate and old time friend was actually a top management staff there. Quickly, she directed those in charge of registration to give me the forms and also provide me with necessary information. I sent same to Patience and within a couple of weeks, she was asked to come for a brand new wheelchair.

Of course, Patience was extremely happy. But she was also worried about how she would personally come over to Alausa to collect the wheelchair as directed. She lives at Okota-Isolo, which is quite far from Alausa –Ikeja and would require boarding up to three buses to get there. In view of her disability and the rickety condition of her wheelchair, there is no denying that coming to Alausa was indeed a herculean task.

The appointment was fixed for October 10th and then Imaobong sent another message-

“Patience is willing to come to Alausa anytime but she said she has no transport fare or money to chatter a taxi…I’m sorry to bother you.”

I suggested she gets a neighbour or friend who has a car to help her. I was almost too sure that someone would be kind-hearted enough to honour her request but to my chagrin, I was told that the supposed helper insisted we must send money to by fuel for his car before he can ferry her to LASODA office.

What would I do? I had to send the money. And so on Tuesday, October 10th, Patience came in the company of her son, niece, the neighbour who owns the car and another young chap that runs errands for her.

Of course it didn’t take long before the documentation was done and the wheel chair handed over to her. Oh! What joy? Yes! She expressed profound gratitude as he heaved a sigh of relief.

She later told me that how she had made several attempts before now to get government’s assistance but met with stiff resistance and rejection. But she is thankful that with the aid of the new and better wheelchair, there is no more stress and hardship. “I don’t have to depend on boys in my area to carry me on their shoulders when I get stuck. I can now move freely and do my little business.”

Going further, we have been told by LASODA officials that people living with disability have been divided into different clusters groups e.g. the Association for the Blind, the Deaf, the Crippled etc. Patience will be formally registered with her cluster group today -12th December as one of those that will receive support and empowerment opportunities from the Lagos State government. What a new lease of life? And a breath of fresh air too!

Yes! Hand-In-Hand, Shoulder-to-Shoulder, Sister-to-Sister, we must support one another. We must be our Sisters’ keeper. It doesn’t matter what the challenge, disability or short-coming is. In Sisterhood, we stand!