New wheelchair for 78 year old
Francina Montshiwa has been struggling with an old, broken wheelchair for a long time and, for the most part, hasn't been able to go anywhere. Until now.
For years, she has asked and asked, but no one could help. Although Kagiso is a community where you can almost always find a helping hand, most residents have their own financial worries and find it extremely difficult to help out. After months of holding out her hand, hoping someone could help her regain her mobility, a councillor has done exactly that.
Francina Montshiwa lost one of her legs to diabetes 10 years ago, and six years later, she lost the other leg. She has been wheelchairbound ever since. Now, at the age of 78, she struggles to move around her house and to go outside with an old, broken wheelchair.
When councillor Kagiso Lekagane heard of her plight, he knew something had to be done. Luckily, councillors have access to funds specifically to help the community, and he was able to organise a new chair for Francina.
She was ecstatic when she received the new chair a month ago. Unfortunately, she soon realised that the wheelchair was too wide to comfortably move through some of the doorways in her house, too low for her to get onto her bed and didn’t provide the necessary support to keep her upright.
She doesn’t have to use her old wheelchair for very long, though, as councillor Kagiso quickly found out that there was a problem and jumped to work to arrange a replacement wheelchair, fit to her specifications. She is now waiting for the arrival of this chair, and is very excited to be able to go out during the day for fresh air and to visit some of her neighbours as she used to do.
