A Call to show Love and Care to "THE DISABLED"

 By Olaleye Boluwatife Ezekiel

As a youth and a person, thank God because you are a complete human being. Thank God because you have working hands, thank God because you have working legs, thank God because you are perfect, thank God because you have no disabilities whatsoever because there are people out there who would give anything, any chance, any opportunity, at any cost to be in your position because they are not as privileged or graced as you are.

While you can walk miles easily, they cannot dare do so, not even in their wildest dreams. You see them on the street begging for alms, you see them on the street crying for help, you see some homeless with no shelter to lay their heads, what an unfortunate position to be!

I weep and feel pity for them because they didn’t wish such unpleasant situation upon themselves. Some are like that because of accident, for some, they were born with it and while some are in such situation because of a terrible sickness or ailment. It pains to see that the society, they are being given the kinds of names they never wished for, names they never thought that they would ever be called. They are the ones people would look with so much contempt as if they are not the creations of the almighty God, they are the one people deride as if they are not humans at all, Why? Is this their fault?

It is even more painful to see our fellow youths with a lot of dreams and goals among the category of the disabled. Youths who have something in them in one way or the other to impact and influence lives positively but are unable to do so because of their condition. How sad!

At least, in the western world, huge steps have been taken towards making the world pleasant and better for people with physical disabilities but what about the situation in this part of our world-Africa? Few are lucky to be in Government’s care but majority are left to suffer unfairly. In other developed countries, we have sports that are meant for the disabled. A notable example is the Paralympics tournament held every four years. A platform like this has giving the disabled a reason to continue to fight to survive over the years but here, Majority lose hope. What are we doing to correct this mentality?

Once upon a time, an unfortunate driver saw his Bus, carrying a lot of passengers stop suddenly in the middle of an “ocean” of dirty water, as a result of the bad road and passengers began to murmur, complain, insult, curse him and began to alight from the bus into the falling rain.

Some rolled up their trousers while others pulled up their gown in order to avoid it from getting stained by the accumulated dirty water but the crippled man- the man with the physical disabilities inserted his hands into his slippers and crawled down from the bus’ chairs only to lament at his fate when he calculated how deep the water will be. He had a place to go so he had no choice than to alight from the bus like others had done. How sad. It was one painful and disheartening sight to see the handicap dip his hands and coiled legs into the deep filthy water and having to see his nice and beautiful blue shirt and ash trousers heavily drenched and stained by the water because he lacked the ability to stand and walk upright.

It was heart-breaking to see as he continued to wallow in the dirt and vehicles continued to splash dirt on his already stained clothing and his face. It was even annoying when he called on another bus or a bike rider to take him to his destination just like others had done since the previous vehicle had disappointed but no one stopped to listen to him, let alone grant his heart desires. How callous can humans be to their fellow humans? He was left with no other choice than to keep crawling on the wet, dirty and slippery road.

From this true life story, I ask: Does it mean that it is a crime to be disabled? Is it everyone that is born complete that will die a complete being? Of course not! This is why we shouldn’t let the disabled of this cruel world we live in get tired of life. Yes, we might have no deformities, no disabilities of any kind but let it always ring in our heads that those who are not like us need our help badly and we must give them that help. It is why we are privileged to be youths, hale and healthy youths and we are the one charged with the duty of inspiring a change in mentality. We are a big family no matter the race we come from or the status or position we might be physically and financially, we are one and it is high time we started showing it.