EDUCATORS WITHOUT BORDERS
EDUCATORS WITHOUT BORDERS
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
- Emmanuel Yeboah
The Marathon of
Hope
Learning from those who conquered diseases?
By Prof. Talaat I. Farag
No one is immune from having a health crisis at some point in her/his life journey. Babies may be born with major congenital anomalies, children in the pre-school age may suffer from autism, accidents may occur at any age, and with increasing life expectancies, many diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's are much more common today. In this section we present inspirational stories of heroism over debilitating physical ailments.
Emmanuel's Gift
A Story of a Disabled Hero from Ghana
The
documentary entitled, "Emmanuel's Gift" played on May 2006 in Toronto at the
Sprockets International Film Festival for Children gained a lot of attention.
Emmanuel, Ghana's Terry Fox, sparked a campaign for disability rights that is
still going strong, inspired American filmmakers Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern.
When Emmanuel Yeboah was born, his parents were shocked by his baby's severely deformed right leg (with an absent tibia bone). His mother's family pressed her to kill her infant, or at the very least abandon him. This was not unusual in Ghana when he was born in 1977. Some consider his major congenital deformity as a punishment from a deity.
One of the editors of the Globe and Mail newspaper, Egle Procuta, mentioned that in Ghana there is about 2 million people with physical disabilities. That is to say about 10% of Ghana's population!
Emmanuel's
mother refused to abandon or kill her son. She instilled in him, the unshakable
belief that not only was he worthy of a good and full life, but that he also has
a responsibility to fight for those less able. She wanted him to know that God
brought him to this Earth for a purpose. This is why, Emmanuel has come to be
called by some a hero compared to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
When Canadians saw the documentary, they thought of their unforgettable hero
Terry Fox, who had just one functional leg. Emmanuel cycled 600kms across Ghana
to shatter the prevailing myth that the only option open to the disabled was
life as a street beggar. He has been hosted on Oprah Winfrey's show, met fellow
countryman Kofi Annan at the United Nations, and was offered $25,000 by Nike for
his charitable organization.
In Koforidua city where he lives with his wife and 2-years-old daughter. His big project now is pushing for a Disability Bill to cover vocational training and wheelchair accessibility into Ghana's constitution. He always remembers that his disabled right leg did not stop him from climbing trees and playing soccer or ride a bicycle.
He was lucky that some US missionaries spotted him riding around town on a beat-up bike and told him about The Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), a charity based in California. They provided him with a decent bicycle and invited him to the United States for their San Diego Triathlon challenge, where he completed the 56-mile bicycle course.
He impressed Loma Linda University, who arranged for him a high-tech prosthetic
leg in 2003. As a result, he wore two shoes for the first time in his life, and
walked without a crotch. A year later, he named his daughter Linda.
He networked intensively with other charities active in Ghana, such as Free Wheelchair Mission, who arranged an over-night marathon to fashion 100 wheelchairs for the physically disabled. The 5-feet 6-inches Emmanuel truly received his gift in the smiling faces of the hundreds of people involved in this event.
Interestingly. Sprockets director, Jane Schoettle, asked the audience "Does anyone have a question for Emmanuel?" One boy wondered, "What is it like to have a fake leg?" He answered, "I just take it off at night and put it back on in the morning." The audience enjoyed having just witnessed a real life hero and how the seeds of empathy can be planted in the young.
Emmanuel has met with many celebrities and international figures, including President George W. Bush and TV host, Oprah Winfrey.
For more details on Emmanual's campaign, visit Challenged Athletes Foundation - www.challengedathletes.org
In order to conquer health crises, we must focus on preventive measures; early diagnosis and appropriate management. Mass education programs are highly essential in order to offer people with accurate data which will help them avoiding health problems and offer "crisis counselling" in others.
Prof. Talaat I. Farag, MD, FRCP, FACP, FACMG is a former adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is the founder of The Ambassadors Research Foundation in 1998. Email: tfarag@dal.ca.
