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Sam's Story
Sam
was a successful
chauffer. He is a tall,
handsome man who has a lovely disposition, always keen to chat and pass
the time of day with whoever he meets.
Ukuthasa met him when we were refurbishing the community centre in Lwandle, having completed the construction of 35 low cost houses in Fatyella Square.
Sam was employed as a casual painter to work on site and painted
from his wheelchair, or the floor, by crawling around the rooms.
He would paint the lower parts of the walls whilst another casual
workers
painted the higher areas!
During
the period of pre-election
violence in Cape Town, Sam was caught
in crossfire and suffered a bullet wound.
Under the triage system in an overworked hospital A
&
E unit he was classified as unlikely to survive and left on a stretcher
in the corridor until someone had time to attend to him.
He remembers laying there sleeping, waking, perhaps semi-conscious
for many hours. When he did regain
consciousness he began to shout for help.
He was rushed into a treatment room and found to have a bullet
lodged in his spine. Months later
after many operations,
he was discharged from hospital but had no feeling or use
in one foot.
He could limp and crawl but was not able to walk.
We
discovered that Sam could do fine bead work and we were able to put him
in touch with a company that employed him to make bead labels and jar
covers. When the company
relocated to the Eastern Cape, Sam began to make HIV beadpins for tourist
operators in Cape Town
with start-up
funding from Ukuthasa. The Health
Service had been prepared to operate on Sam's ankle and foot, however
the long and ardous journey to hospital was difficult for him to manage
and often he would wait all day only to be sent home due to surgery
lists being superseded with emergency procedures.
Through Helderberg
Christian church we were able to connect Sam with a local surgeon who,
having met Sam, agreed to do the operation without charge, at the local
hospital in Somerset West. After
many months of physiotherapy and post operative treatment, Sam is now
able to walk.
Ukuthasa also funded alterations to Sam's low cost
home (provided by the local authority) so that when Sam is tired and
needs to use his wheelchair, he can access the whole house.
Sam is one of Ukuthasa's success stories.
We believe that we have been able to make a real difference to
the quality of his life.
Beaded pin badges can be purchased for £2, contact
Lynne-Anne West to get yours. |
