By Mary Wang'ang'a as told to Jeff Slaughter
My heart broke when I came across Samuel Ndung'u stuck in the mud in a broken wheelchair on the side of the road.
Helpless, humbled and alone, he was at the mercy of any passerby willing to pull him out.
So I stopped to help him.
As I struggled to help Samuel break free of the mud, I listened to his story. It was all too familiar: a life wrought with hardship, struggle and great need. But his greatest wish - was for mobility.
I wish you could have seen the smile on his face and the hope in his eyes when I told him that mobility was something I could help with!
If Samuel were an isolated case, his would be sad enough. But there are many more like him in my home country of Kenya.
There are thousands of physically challenged individuals like Samuel who drag themselves along dusty roads, over jungle paths or across sandy beaches to get somewhere. All because their bodies are broken due to injury, disease or a congenital birth defect.
Because of our partnership with Mobility Worldwide, we're able to offer hope - and a lot more - to people like Samuel. We're able to give physically challenged individuals a lift in life so that they can move forward in every way: physically, emotionally, mentally, socially.
Once they are moving forward, they can become productive members of society, often finding work so they can support themselves and their families. That is what drives my passion to see physically challenged individuals like Samuel; become mobile.
You see, in a country like Kenya, many individuals with disabilities don't have the resources they need to live a full and productive life. Many have never experienced the joy of walking - or mobility. That limitation not only affects their self-esteem, but it keeps them in a cycle of poverty, dependency and loss of dignity.
Samuel's life changed the day he traded his broken wheelchair for a new Mobility Cart provided by Mobility Worldwide.
In addition to his new Mobility Cart, he began to get physical therapy to help him overcome his limitations. And he started a business using the Igloo cooler that was given to him by Mobility Worldwide.
Today, Samuel is moving forward in life with dignity, independence and best of all ...hope! And that's a long way from being stuck in the mud in a broken wheelchair on the side of the road.
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