In love with a cripple mother of four!

By Umaru Fofana

I saw love on Sunday 9 October like I had never before seen. No better way to illustrate the biblical and quranic dictate to honour and love our parents. 

I had gone to Mile 91 in northern Sierra Leone with my colleague, Alpha Kargbo, to visit Zainab Kamara, a disabled woman paralysed waist-down. She has four children of her own, two nephews and a niece she is looking after. She has nothing but faith and a small garden with which to look after them. 

Zainab’s plight had been captured on camera and brought to our attention by Kargbo who works for the BBC Media Action as a radio mentor. She is a single parent. Before anyone judges her, her first husband died and the second one is “gravely ill” and has travelled to far away Kailahun District for traditional healing, she says. Let’s not judge the fathers of her children either - at least not now. 

In the early afternoon hours we arrived at the very humble home of Zainab. Hers is a mud brick house that is caving in. A tarpaulin had to be placed on top of the thatch to stop the leakage from the rain. But that was too little too late. Some of the sticks that should hold the roof up have rammed into the ground that the muddy floor should actually be called. 

Zainab’s eldest child, Hawanatu Kamara who is in JSS 3, had gone to school - Ansarul Islamic Secondary - when we arrived. When she returned home her mother was sitting on a low bench - obviously because she is a cripple. My eyes became pregnant at the way Hawanatu, a tall 15-year-old, had to stoop to fondle her mum. She kissed her. They both smiled so broadly you could count all their teeth. This is PURE LOVE - unadulterated! Not influenced by a child’s cunningness to cajole the mum to be able to watch her favourite TV channel, or to dictate a meal of her choice on the following day. Those are alien to them. I can still not forgive myself for not filming the scene - I had not expected it and didn't want to recreate it which would have taken away the naturalness. 

Hawanatu would later dash to the room to take off her uniform.  Unlike many other homes where there would be food for the kids from school, there was none for Zainab and her three siblings who attend a christian primary school and so were still enjoying their weekend - that is if there was anything to enjoy.  

Kargbo and I had sent some biscuits and other stuff for the kids but they were still inside the vehicle which was parked some 200 meters away because we couldn't drive to the house which Zainab managed to put up on someone else’s plot of land. Since one of the rooms had caved in, she and all her children had to cram inside a single room which I do not wish to describe beyond the point that it is anything but a bedroom. Not just because there is no bed, but because there are things inside it that should not be inside a bedroom. 

There is no toilet nearby which is hard even for an able-bodied person let alone someone in Zainab’s state. 

As we walked to the car at the end of our visit, we asked the kids to come along for the gifts but also so we could advise them to be serious with their education as the only way they could make their mum walk, again - figuratively and perhaps even literally. Zainab, who said she was not actually born a cripple but developed it due to poor medicare and poverty, wouldn't be left behind. In the narrow pathway through her backyard garden she literally crawled to see us off.  

The kids’ faces lit up when we gave them the token gifts we had sent for them. The unity and respect for their elder sister to hold everything for them until they returned home, told me a thing or two more about Zainab. A good mother! 

Through her subsistent gardening this woman in her 30s has been able to secure a plot of land somewhere not too far away. So clearly she is not someone who sulks or sinks in self-pity. She is hardworking! Therefore Kargbo and I are making the following suggestions - and please feel free to email me (ufofana@gmail.com) your ideas as these are just our own on-the-spot thoughts - counting on the support of the hundreds of you whose human hearts the footage has touched and who have expressed interest to help:

1. We are working on opening a bank account for her. Our target is to accomplish this later this week or early next because it requires a trip back to Mile 91. When this is sorted we will announce the bank details. She is happy to wait if only that makes all monies raised in her name reach her. 
2. When that account is set up she will not be the sole signatory just so there are checks on her use of the funds. Giving her cash will attract robbers making her further vulnerable. 
3. Their everyday survival is obviously of interest but the education of her children is key. To make this sustainable she has to be involved in some trade that is profitable. 
4. In this regard we asked her what she would like to do that will be sustainable and keep her children in school, she said she needed time to think about it. She called us 24 hours later to say she would like to sell rice - per bag. In this regard Kargbo and I are doing a market survey around this to determine profitability and security. 
5. Since she has already bought a plot of land, building a house for her - with mud bricks and cement mortar - won’t be expensive in Mile 91 we have been assured. She needs a house of her own. 
6. Rent a store/shop for her at the main park/market for her business.  
7. We will do the initial purchase and hand her and everything to the Town Chief to help look after them. This is a one-off intervention and we should make it sustainable for the sake of Zainab, but for the sake of her children who could grow up to contribute meaningfully to Sierra leone and humanity generally. 

Thanks to all those who will make this change happen in the lives of this family in dire need. God bless and reward you manifolds. 

Photo: Zainab Kamara, a cripple mother of four

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