CHIKETAM IGWE Deserves a better life

Chiketam Igwe, was a very active and bubbly 5-year-old, in 2015, when he suffered a fracture on his right leg after a domestic accident. Because the family did not have the financial resources to take Chiketam to the hospital, they opted for the services of a traditional bonesetter.

This unfortunate decision proved to be a very costly one, as the bonesetter mismanaged the fracture. The leg got infected due to the mismanagement and eventually had to be amputated. About a year later, he lost his father, leaving only his widowed mother to care for him. His mother, a petty trader had to relocate from Ebonyi state to her home state, Anambra state, in order to better manage the situation, after the loss of her husband. His mother currently sells sachet water to support the family.

Sadly, this event has slowed down the pace of  Chiketam’s education. While most of his peers are gearing up to get into secondary school, Chiketam who is now 10 years old, is still in Primary Two. Daily, Chiketam is faced with stigmatisation and discrimination. He can no longer join his friends to play football, a sport he loves and cherishes. Because he cannot physically participate in the bonding activities that his friends engage in, he is often left alone and by himself, leading to him having thoughts of depression.

With a prosthetic limb, Chiketam would be given a new lease of life. He would not only find it easier to integrate and interact with his peers. It would also ease the burden of care which his mother currently struggles to provide. His commute to and from school would be less of a struggle, his general outlook to life is improved, and hopefully, this becomes the springboard from which he is catapulted to unimaginable heights.

Please join us in rewriting Chiketams’s story, let us come together to give Chiketam a new limb.