What do People Living with Disability Need Most?
Seven-year-old Victoria needed a wheelchair but her family couldn’t access one. Her mother asked God for help…
The World Health Organization estimates that 75 million people in the world, like Victoria, need a wheelchair; of those in need, 5-15% have access to one. Victoria was part of the majority: people in need of a wheelchair who have to do without.
“Defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Proverbs 31:9
Victoria came into the world in distress, premature. She spent her first week in intensive care and didn’t leave the hospital until she was a month old. Doctors diagnosed Victoria with West syndrome and told her parents that she wouldn’t develop normally.
Then, at four months old, Victoria started having seizures.
“She had at least 15 seizures a day,” said Victoria’s mother, Margarita.
For months on end, Victoria’s seizures continued relentlessly. Unable to get appointments at public health facilities, Victoria’s family sought treatments at private clinics. But despite multiple medications and interventions, Victoria continued to convulse daily.
By the time Victoria turned one year old, her family had fallen into financial duress. Worse still, Victoria’s parents held little hope for their daughter’s survival, let alone healing.
“So we left it to God. We prayed to God, ‘Heal her, leave her with us. And if not, here she is. We know she will be better in your presence. Take her with you or give us the strength to watch her suffer because until this day, there hasn’t been a single human who has helped us.’ That was our prayer, with resignation. We expected the worst.”
Margarita
The next week, Victoria got gravely sick. Her parents thought God was going to take her with him. During her illness, Victoria’s fever spiked. Margarita recalls focusing on treating the fever, and not noticing the reduction in Victoria’s seizures until they lasted only two minutes. Then, unexpectedly, the seizures stopped.
“That was the first miracle: God left her with us.”
Margarita
Even after the seizures stopped, Victoria and her family suffered in many ways. Where Margarita used to have a job, and what felt like a “normal life,” things changed when Victoria was born.
Now seven years old, Victoria can’t walk, speak, or hold her head up on her own.
As Margarita put it, life with Victoria is different and more complex. Victoria needs constant care and a specialized diet; she also needed a wheelchair, which her parents couldn’t afford.
“We always needed help. I prayed to God because only God knew how we were feeling. I made God a request in the middle of my despair:
‘Please, I want to understand. I know you healed her, and she stopped convulsing. But what’s next? I don’t understand.’
…and God heard our prayer.”
Margarita
Margarita got a call from a friend, who invited her to a Joni and Friends Wheels for the World™ outreach in El Salvador. Despite multiple obstacles to attending the event, Margarita accepted the invitation.
Victoria arrived at the Wheels for the World wheelchair distribution in an infant car seat, carried by her family. A team of volunteers fitted Victoria in a restored, like-new wheelchair that lets her sit up on her own.
“Joni and Friends is the answer to my prayers! Now, Victoria can sit by herself. She is fastened in and safe and has all the accessories she needs. This wheelchair will help with her mobilization, her learning, and her development. It is a great blessing for us and for Victoria, and she knows it!”
Margarita
That day, and in the months following, Victoria and her family received more than just a wheelchair. Through the love and hands-on help of the Joni and Friends team, Margarita found a new sense of peace.
For the first time, she experienced joy and acceptance in the midst of Victoria’s condition, and her family’s circumstances.
Now, at Joni’s House El Salvador, a permanent disability center, Victoria’s family stays connected to the body of Christ, and receives much-needed help. Joni’s House provides Victoria’s family, and many other families living with disability, with clean water, food, essential medicines and treatments, physical therapy, social activities, and spiritual counseling—holistic care infused with Gospel love.
“Joni and Friends is the ministry God used in my life to ease my mind so I could stop feeling forgotten by God. Joni and Friends inspires me in such a great way.
I hadn’t been able to take Victoria out in over six months. It was hard to go on a walk before. But now, with this wheelchair, I can take her for walks!
Joni and Friends allows us to see God more closely. The day I met Joni and Friends, I felt my chains were broken!”
Margarita
Joni and Friends has helped Margarita see how God is working all things together for her good, and for the good of her daughter.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:29
“What I have learned is, if God heals her, that’s good; if God doesn’t heal her, that’s good. I don’t think, ‘Why God?’ anymore. Instead I think, ‘Thank you for choosing me!’ I’ve been transformed, and I am happy with my daughter.”
Margarita
Too many families in the world, like Victoria’s, feel forgotten by God in their need and suffering. For every person who has received a wheelchair, millions continue to wait. Some, like Margarita, have asked God to send help. And God can use you to answer these prayers.
Your gift today can break the chains of despair for a mother like Margarita and give a child, like Victoria, mobility and joy!
After experiencing Jesus through Joni and Friends, Margarita wants to share a message to others going through suffering: “You should not lose hope. Hold onto Jesus. Jesus is the path to the truth and life.”
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
Your donation to Joni and Friends will lead people living with disability to Jesus through global programs like Wheels for the World and Joni’s House, and through disability ministry taking place in communities across the United States.
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