Wheelsblog: Kumi, Uganda 2020 -- 8th Feb

We've got a fantastic team working for Wheels for the World in Kumi, Uganda from the 4th to the 15th February. They'll be sending back updates as often as possible, and we're looking forward to sharing the trip, and the stories of lives changed through the gift of a wheelchair. Here's the team's report from Saturday 8th--the second day of Wheelchair distribution, written by team member, Peter Bailey...

Kumi Group Blog - Day 2

The touching lyrics of a popular hymn provided the perfect symbolism for the teams work at Kumi Hospital as we entered our second day of helping those in need.

"Open up my eyes
To the things unseen.
Show me how to love.
...Break my heart
For what breaks yours."

Because it was a day that called for all of the teams collective compassion, dedication, experience and skills in treating the almost sixty patients who came to us for help.

Many again crawled on hands and knees and, as the heat of the day intensified, so too our feelings and emotions were heightened by the sheer scale of the needs that became evident.
Congenital deformities, amputations, cerebal palsy, leprosy, HIV/AIDS, polio and many other debilitating afflictions which had so deeply impacted their lives, again demanded the very best responses that the team could envision.

There was Samimu, just 12 years old, who, already afflicted with congenital paralysis of her legs since birth, then lost both her parents in an accident when she was just 5 - an accident that also disabled her sister.

Yet, out of all this darkness came the brightest of light - the conversion of her remaining family of ten from Muslim to Christianity and a saviour in Christ which had led them to seek help for Samimu from our team.

Then there was Agnes - 15 years old yet looking much younger - who had been treated for some time at Kumi Hospital and attends the school there.

Agnes was found lying under a bush, completely abandoned by her mother, perhaps due to her severely distorted body.

Unable to walk, Agnes was clearly delighted with her new, restyled wheelchair designed to better accommodate the rotated and malformed upper half of her body.

It was another intensely testing, moving and rewarding day. Perhaps even more so for those in the team who were able to witness the courage and sheer determination of a large group of patients at the end of the day as they were preparing to return home.

Despite their severely damaged and dysfunctional bodies, many missing limbs, each had learnt to improvise ways to get onto the two open trucks that were to take them home. To them it was just one more obstacle, one more difficulty to overcome in their most challenging of lives.
As they so patiently made room for each other in the already overcrowded vehicles, further hemmed in by all their wheelchairs, walking frames and crutches, we could only look on in quiet wonder at their incredible resolve and ponder what challenges and teachings God would present us with on Day 3.