By Jennifer Kinkead, Give Us Wings volunteer & Steering Committee Member, and sponsor of Joseph.

5/19/2010

Joseph is a 15-year-old Maasai boy who lives in the Rift Valley of Kenya.  Joseph has been a part of our lives for the past five years.  I am a volunteer for Give Us Wings, and in 2005 my family asked Mary Steiner if we could sponsor a child in Kenya or Uganda.  Our hope was to develop a personal relationship with a child, about the same age as our children, so that we could all learn about life in Africa and the joys and challenges that go with it.  We wanted to send supplies for school and toys that would be new and interesting for a child in Africa.

Mary Steiner suggested Joseph as the boy that we would sponsor.  She told us the story and showed us pictures of a little boy in a wheel chair with a beautiful smile on his face.  Joseph has Spina Bifida and as a result of this disease he has had to have both feet amputated.  Mary explained that Joseph’s future depended on getting an education.  Many people in Africa do not have the opportunity to get an education and as a result find jobs that require manual labor but Joseph would not have that option.  We started sponsoring Joseph right away.  He moved away from his mother, father and sisters to a boarding school where he would get a solid education.  He missed his mom and he would visit her as often as he possibly could.

We have learned so much from the experience of sponsoring Joseph. We regularly watch video of Joseph receiving our gifts and letters that are translated.  We have learned that despite the challenges that Joseph faces he looks forward to every day and that he wants to get an education so that he can help others.  For the first couple of years that we sponsored Joseph we sent LEGOS, a Rubex Cube, clothing, school supplies, backpacks, art supplies and lots of other things that we thought would be intriguing for him and would not require electricity, which is part of learning about life in Africa.  Probably the most important lesson for our family is that Joseph does like to get LEGOS and unique surprises but he would prefer to get a goat and a cow for his mother.  Joseph’s father recently died and the future has become even more challenging for this family.  We do send small things for fun but we know that Joseph’s mind is on his future and the future of his family and he would rather have fewer trinkets and an occasional goat or chicken.  Last year my kids bought Joseph a cow.  We were very proud.

After two years Joseph began to have additional issues related to the Spina Bifida.  The boarding school talked with Give Us Wings about removing Joseph from school because they did not have the staff to provide care for Joseph.  Instead of pulling Joseph from school Give Us Wings talked with Joseph’s sister about the situation and decided that if Joseph’s sister could care for him then Give Us Wings would pay for her tuition fees at the boarding school.  Things went well for another couple of years.  This year however Joseph’s sister graduated from this school.  This is a great accomplishment for her and we are so happy for her and what this means for her future and her family.

Joseph has had to leave boarding school.  It was heartbreaking for him as he loves to learn and he knows how important it is for his future to have an education.  He is back in the Rift Valley of Kenya. There is a local Maasai school that is about a 45 minute walk but given the rough terrain andthe fact that Joseph has a wheel chair with air filled tires that are flat because of the large Acacia Tree thorns he is not able to get there by wheel chair.  Joseph has dreams and aspirations of getting an education and making a difference in the world. For Joseph to achieve his dreams it is important that he return to the boarding school where he will lean the skills that best suit his aspirations.

Mary Steiner met with me after her last visit to Africa.  She gave me the update on Joseph and that he is again without the possibility of getting a strong education.  Through Linda Lindeke, Associate Professor / Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Minnesota and member of St. John the Evangelist, we were put into contact with Mary Kautto at Shriners Hospital.  Mary Albright, Mary Steiner and I met with Mary Kautto and talked about Joseph’s situation.  Immediately Mary Kautto said that Shriners Hospital could probably get a refurbished wheel chair with solid rubber tires so that Joseph could get to school.  We started the process of gathering information so that a wheel chair could be modified to properly fit Joseph.  I called and talked with Grace Kingatua, an amazing Kenyan woman that manages some of the Give Us Wings outreach by providing care for twenty-four kids that Give Us Wings works with.   We talked about the specific measurements that we needed and she was very specific about the need for solid rubber tires and said that if it would be possible Joseph would love an umbrella to shade him while in the hot sun.

Mary Kautto of Shriners Hospital put me into touch with Mary Rose who works in the Physical Therapy Department of Shriners.  She and I worked with drawings from Kenya and talked about the pros and cons of chairs that were at Shriners.  We picked a chair that would work well with a little modification.  The next step was to work with Daniel Filipovich at Rehabilitation Designs, Inc. to modify the chair from Shriners Hospital.  Dan was great and he even had an umbrella to go with the refurbished chair.  As we were talking about the dimensions of the seat he was planning to make there was a silence on the other end of the phone line.  Dan then said that he had a chair that was exactly what Joseph needs.  He said that he would like to donate the chair to Joseph and that he would have it delivered to Shriners, with the umbrella, the next day.  That was Thursday, April 23 and the wheel chair left for Joseph in Kenya on Sunday, April 25!

We will update this story as we get news from Mary Steiner who recently left Uganda and is on her way to the Rift Valley in Kenya.

Thank you to Linda Lindeke of the University of Minnesota, Mary Kautto and Mary Rose of Shriners Hospital and Daniel Filipovich of Rehabilitation Designs, Inc.  You have made a very big difference in the life of a great young man, Joseph.

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