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At the last home we came to on our home visits to some members of our Special Needs Awareness Programme (SNAP), a neighbour joined us. He said that there was a disabled girl in his household and asked if we would visit. This was where we met Abigail.
Abigail was raised in the south of Ghana with her two younger siblings till her mother ran away. They were brought to their paternal grandmother's home in Lawra, but Abigail was not accepted. Their fate took a number of twists and turns, until Abigail came to live with her distant great-uncle, who despite clearly having very little has opened his heart and his home to her and her younger brother.
The family live at the top of a small hill and access is incredibly difficult by motorbike. You need a strong engine and an experienced driver to get up the stony tracks with sudden gullies and stomach-flinching turns! The other way to reach town is to pass through the farms by foot.
Abigail seems to have what might be cerebral palsy, though I am no clinician. She cannot use her legs and she wobbles and shakes. She moves around using her arms to pull herself along the ground with great effort and could get herself up into her wheelchair (which she finds more useful to use when the ground is wet). Her great-uncle had heard about the consignment of wheelchairs that ATE was able to provide and spoke to Habib at that time to secure one for Abigail. He has made Abigail her own toilet which she can access and use on her own and trained her to bath herself, affording her that dignity and independence as she has reached womanhood.
She is learning how to make shea butter with his wife but when asked if there is anything that she needs, Abigail says that she would like to learn how to sew.
It is extremely touching to see this family come together and to see Abigail, despite her past and her relative isolation, well cared for and so determined to take care of herself.
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