Life Transformed and Dignity Restored

Earlier this year we had a special campaign entitled, “Beautifully Enabled by God’s Design.” Several people spoke about the disabled and brought attention to their plight. Joni Erickson-Tada, one of the speakers, is a globally recognized advocate for the disabled and shared how over one billion people have some form of disability! https://www.medicalambassadors.org/beautifully-enabled/

This is a story from South Asia. It’s about a young man who is fondly referred to by his parents as “Munna” or “Young One.” Munna has multiple disabilities and had slowly become depressed as one door after another closed to him.

When the CHE team first met him, his mother told them that Munna had gone to school earlier, but as his condition worsened, he couldn’t continue. His family tried to carry him to the district school using a hired auto rickshaw (three-wheeler) but it became too expensive and eventually they just gave up.

As the relationship of the CHE team grew with Munna and his family, they arranged to get a wheelchair for him so he could continue his studies at a nearby local school till he reached the eighth grade. The CHE team soon connected Munna to the specialized team working with disabled people, and they visited him twice a week, teaching him simple tasks to do with his fingers and hands so he could strengthen his muscles and coordinate his hand movements better.

These simple exercises, and the opportunity to use crayons and work on simple craft projects brought new life into Munna. His confidence increased and he developed a positive attitude to life, to God and others. The team often shared with him about God’s love and how every human being, no matter how broken, was important to God, and that He loved them and cared for them.

The CHE team specializing in working with the disabled, leveraged their connections with a community health global network, and got special seed funds for Munna to start a small income generation project to try his hand at raising chickens. Munna’s improved motor skills, along with basic chicken raising training he received, brought new hope and confidence. Today he is a proud chicken farmer, responsible not only for himself, but also for the lives and productivity of the chickens that are part of his little project.

Munna is filled with joy because he can make a valid contribution to his parents’ household costs. His parents in turn, are proud of the changes they see every day in their son. When the CHE team asked him how he markets the eggs, Munna said with a smile, “There is so much demand for these eggs, that my customers come here and pick up the eggs every day. If you wait till noon, you’ll see my customers!”

Munna plans to grow his project to meet the growing demand for his organic tasty eggs. These are some of the ways in which our CHE facilitators work in the field to bring transformation and restoration of dignity to the poor and disabled.

We hope you are encouraged by Munna’s story and evidence of how your support enables us to reach out to marginalized communities in remote areas. In sharing the love of God with the disabled, creating environments that foster transformation and enabling the restoration of basic human dignity, immense value is added to their lives.

It is a joy to be a part of God’s worldwide ministry of wholistic transformation. Please pray this month for the disabled and depressed and for God to continue to open doors for us to serve them.