At the age of 10 most children long for a toy, a ball of their favorite sport, a bicycle or the video game of the moment. Some others would appreciate new clothes or perhaps candies, but what 10 year-old Aristides wished for was a wheelchair. 
For him, the wheelchair was a giant toy that he had seen a time or two, a toy that would help him move from one place to the next… not drag himself along the cobbled streets where he would sit each morning and watch people pass by.

His condition, which obligated him to be just a part of the impoverished rural scenery, also made him vulnerable to all kinds of mockery, having survived an overwhelming illness that he still does not understand. He only knows that his small feet are different and because of that, he cannot walk. Nevertheless, Aristides sees himself as just like all the other children in his community and hopes they will include him in the games they play in the streets each day. Aristides’s mother, Mrs. Marcelina, comments:

“He does not go to school. They wouldn’t accept him because he cannot walk; he can only crawl. He can’t reach the desk or go to bathroom alone. The teachers said that he must go to a special school, but that is something that doesn’t even exist here. The children of the block go out to play ball, and he asks me for permission to go out and play. That’s what he tells me, and so I put him in the doorway. From the ground he pretends like he is the sports announcer, or the referee, or a cheerleader, things like that. He does that seated, while he watches the other children run. Other organizations have come to see about his health condition, but when they see that he is more than 6 years old, they tell me that they cannot help us because they only help young children. That hurts so much.”

Aristides listened to his mother’s words while he played with a small toy crane, a crane that, perhaps if it were bigger might help him move without crawling. This little boy is only ten years old. He can’t lose hope for a better life at this young age. We can’t resign him to a life on the floor…

And the silent clamor of this small child reached the ears of our field staff, and although he is still not sponsored, he was chosen to receive a donation of a wheelchair. On the morning of the donation day, Aristides’s mother was telling her son over and over: “From today on, you are going to have your own wheelchair”, and with these words she prepared him for this long-awaited occasion.

When the moment finally arrived for him to receive his wheelchair, it was a great joy for the entire family. It isn’t every day that there is a gesture of true love and generosity like this. He was thrilled with his wheelchair, and seemed to want to jump and inspect it from all sides. Then he asked repeatedly, “Who sent it to me? Who is my sponsor?  What is my sponsor’s name?”

Aristides now has something more than a wheelchair; he has strength and renewed hope. Now he is just waiting to learn the name of the person to whom he can express his fondness and gratitude for having lifted him from the dirt and shown him that a miracle can happen any day.