The ManicaPost
Dorcas Mhungu Post Correspondent
Fighting to hold back tears, she told The Manica Post how she lost both her feet to diabetes in 2013 and 2015. But, she is grateful for having a husband, Christopher Chigwengwendere who helps push her to and from town with their six-year-old daughter Melissa in tow. Another woman, whose legs were amputated above the knees because of gout, Abigail Kuwarika (49), self-propels her wheelchair from Mabvazuva residential area in Rusape to town, a 2km distance like Nomsa, to sell cellphone recharge cards and food stuffs for a living.
“My father is a businessman and lives in Glen Lorne, Harare. He impregnated my mother and dumped her and I grew up with my mother and stepfather but when I finished Grade 7 he took me,” Nomsa narrated her story.
She enrolled at Riverton, a private school in Masvingo for Form 1, “and I was doing well in school.” It was while in school when she developed symptoms of diabetes.
“I used to eat a lot of food, drink a lot of water and pass a lot of urine. My left ankle started swelling when I was in Form 2 and when I went to the school clinic my blood pressure was very high,” Nomsa explained how her health complication started.
The health woes continued during the following August school holiday when she developed boils under her armpits and genital area. Nomsa said her step-mother’s sister, a nurse advised her sister to take Nomsa for diabetes tests and this was confirmed by a Harare doctor.
“When the doctor saw the results, he immediately admitted me because the sugar level was too high,” Nomsa explained adding that she remained in hospital for a month and a half. She was 16 then. What followed after the diagnosis was a life riddled with physical pain due to her medical condition and emotional pain inflicted by her stepmother that resulted in her withdrawing from school and subsequently running away from home to her mother after Form 3.
“On average, I manage to raise $50 per month needed for rent, water and electricity. I have a supportive husband and although he found it difficult to cope when I lost my limbs, he eventually got used and the three of us do the long distance every day. For food, I take each day as it comes,” Nomsa said downplaying the challenge the family faces to get adequate food.
“I wish I could get financial help to send my daughter to school and boost my business too. We rent a room in Vengere that we have divided using a curtain for Melissa because she is old now. My stove is broken so I use fire from outside these days. If it rains and my husband is not around, we just go to bed hungry, “Nomsa said pleading for material and financial assistance.
Despite her physical challenge, Nomsa honours her duty to clean the toilet the family shares with seven other tenants. I crawl to the toilet and climb onto the toilet seat,” Nomsa said explaining to The Manica Post how she manages to use the toilet. She showed this reporter a serious diabetic wound on one of her legs. She explicitly revealed that she also struggles to raise money for the medication needed to treat the wound. Her mother’s leg was also amputated because of diabetes.
Abigail also shared her touching story. She is mother to four boys, two of whom are late. Of the remaining two, one is mentally challenged.
“I wheel myself to and from home daily. It is easy coming to work but going home is a torturous uphill journey,” Abigail said.
She said she was renting a single room for $30 a month. Abigail maintains that disability does not mean inability: “I can do everything for myself – cooking, washing, sweeping the room and making my bed.”
She said people who are able bodied should be grateful to God.
“I am in a wheel chair and working to earn a living but you see able bodied people begging; it’s a shame,” Abigail said. In 2010 a doctor told her that her right leg needed to be amputated and was admitted at Mutare Provincial Hospital. The following year, her left leg was also amputated and above the knee.
“When my second leg was cut, I went through emotional trauma but with time I accepted it and I ended up counselling other patients while I was in hospital.”
Abigail said besides selling re-charge cards, she sells anything to raise money for her upkeep. She said while it was easy to fend for herself in 2013 when she started, “the past two years have really been tough.”
Abigail is appealing for suitable accommodation, which is more accessible saying if it wasn’t for her empathetic landlord and neighbour, accessing her room would be tough and is grateful to have them in her life.
“When I get home, I wait for someone to come and help me get inside the house. If my male neighbour is not home, I wait for someone from the main house to help me,” said Abigail.
She is appealing for a new wheelchair because her current one is now old and risky to use. Abigail was given another wheelchair by Rusape General Hospital but it is not suitable for her condition because her limbs were cut above the knees. The most stressful time for her is the rainy season because she cannot avoid getting wet. Unlike Nomsa who has a husband by her side every day, Abigail uses both hands to propel her wheelchair leaving her at the mercy of storms in wet weather.
Let lessons be learned and inspiration drawn from some of these disabled citizens who are toiling to survive.
Nomsa’s cell phone number is 0776 472 279 and Abigail 0776 167 272 for those touched by their plight and want to help.
