"Emmanuel's Gift" (2005)

Another prerequisite of Disability in a Global Context is to watch the documentary  "Emmanuel's Gift" and write a reaction to it. The movie was on reserve at NYU, but I chose to purchase it and stream it from Amazon for $5.99. The following is my completion of that assignment. 

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah is a young man who was born in 1977 with a congenital disfigurement of his left leg in a small village in Ghana. 10% of citizens in the country of Ghana are disabled. The disabled are considered to be second class citizens. Disability is seen as a curse or a punishment from a deity rather than having a biological origin, and therefore the child’s deformity was seen as shameful. Emmanuel’s father deserted his family after Emmanuel’s birth, plunging the family into poverty. Other people told Emmanuel’s mother to poison him or leave him to die. Emmanuel’s mother, Comfort Yeboah, provided what she could to him, but she was sick. Emmanuel had to drop out of school at age 13 to support her. He earned $1 a day selling vegetables. When he was still in school, he used to rise before dawn to polish 20 pairs of shoes a day before going to class. Children in Ghana have to carry their books, chairs, and desks with them to school if they're lucky enough to have those supplies. Being disabled, therefore, is a great limitation for a child. Emmanuel grew up without running water or electricity. A lack of immunizations in the country result in many people with movement disorders and blindness. Emmanuel traveled to Accra, the capital of Ghana, a city with a population of 3 million, to earn $2 a day for his family. He could have earned $10 a day if he begged like the other disabled people residing there, but he was too proud to do so. His mother died of her abdominal illness at age 37. The life expectancy in Ghana is only 61 years.

At one point as a young man, Emmanuel wrote to a grant asking for a mountain bike. Because of the unusual request, he piqued the curiosity of those fulfilling requests. He was given a couple of shirts, bike shorts, and a helmet with the bike. Emmanuel proceeded to bike 600 kilometers across the entire country of Ghana, one-legged. His aim was to show that disabled people were capable of doing more than sitting on the street corner and begging (as is expected). He was followed by the media as he completed the ride, and the coverage received international attention. A United States surgeon amputated his vestigial leg and provided him with a prosthetic, free of charge. After PT, and within two weeks, he was riding his bike again after the surgery. His first couple of steps with the prosthetic brought tears to my eyes. Wearing two shoes at the same time and trousers were huge accomplishments to Emmanuel. Then, at a ceremony in his home town, his father made an appearance. This was 26 years after leaving the family. He had remarried and raised seven other children, stating that he had left earlier due to “financial difficulties.” Whatever the case, Emmanuel made amends.

Emmanuel’s mission is to allow the disabled to be employed and to improve mobility of the disabled people in Ghana. He built 100 wheelchairs with the help of volunteers and brought them to his home town, but 100 wheelchairs was not enough for all of the people who needed them. Nike presented Emmanuel with the Casey Martin Award and a $50,000 contract to provide school money, adaptive equipment, and assistance to those with disabilities. It’s a large figure in the USA, but in Ghana the sum is astronomical. I looked up the average annual Ghanaian income in Cedi, and converted it into the equivalency of USD. As of December 2013, the average income is $520.  Nike’s contract, therefore, was the same amount as 20 families’ lifetime savings – or 96x the average Ghanaian income.

Emmanuel made groundbreaking progress in a country where little legislature for the disabled existed. He encourages the disabled to advocate for themselves as workers, and wants to get them off the street. I found the account very inspiring. I think it took a lot of courage for Emmanuel to approach the country leaders and tell them what the disabled people needed. Normally, disabled people are prohibited from sharing the same space as royalty in Ghana. Emmanuel set the stage for the first disabled attendants to be allowed in the presence of a king’s court. The king spoke to his people about the need for disabled people to work and live fulfilling, independent lives. Emmanuel’s story inspired Jim MacLaren as well. MacLaren was an American man who suffered from a C5 [neck] fracture during a bicycle race after losing a leg in a motorcycle accident in NYC. He started an annual 56-mile marathon in the United States.

Emmanuel also helped to fund the start of a school for disabled children to attend. I was moved by this component of his success. Disabled children were previously left alone at home while their parents went out in the community to work. Now these children were empowered to attend school, enlighten themselves, and become more knowledgeable citizens. I hope that because of Emmanuel’s expedition, many other disabled children find the strength within themselves to demand the rights that they deserve in Ghana.