Missing school because your wheelchair broke – Mozambique

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Missing school because your wheelchair broke – Mozambique

4:15 CAT | 18 Mar 2019

File (2018): Mutange Primary School in Namacurra.

In Namacurra, in Zambézia province, Mozambique, a 9-year-old girl is unable to attend school because her wheelchair is broken. Her grandmother has already asked for help, but there is still no response from the community authorities.

Nine-year-old Anastasia Benjamin was born with a motor impairment disorder, and has lived with her grandmother in the district of Namacurra, in Zambézia province, central Mozambique, since her parents died.

She used to go to school in a wheelchair, but it broke at the end of last year. Grandmother Beatriz Benjamim, 52, then carried her the 800 meters so her granddaughter would not miss classes, but she had to stop because of health problems.

Anastasia now spends her days at home. “She’s my granddaughter, she’s 9 years old and very distressed. If we had a wheelchair, it would make it much easier for her to go to school,” grandmother Beatriz says.

The now-broken wheelchair was provided by a Namacurra resident, who one day passed Anastasia’s house and offered to help the family.

“The chair she had was given by a lady who was passing the house on April 22, 2016, felt sorry for the child, and later came back to offer the wheelchair,” one of Anastasia’s aunts says.

Family asks for help

The family cannot afford a new wheelchair, so Anastasia’s grandmother is appealing for help to get her granddaughter mobile and back at school.

Community leader Caetano Armindo says local authorities are aware of the situation and seeking a solution, because there is no way to carry the child to school every day, especially in the rain. “In sunny weather, even after the chair broke, people dragged her to school, but now that the heavy rain has fallen, even those who were doing that can no longer do it.”

DW Africa tried to contact the management of Anastasia’s school, but could not obtain a reaction.

Source: Deutsche Welle