Despite being disable, Rahama Haruna thanks God for making 2016 and being alive. Looking at her, one couldn’t have guessed that Rahama Haruna is 19. The sight of the teen, being carried about in a plastic basin from Makole Village of Warawa local government, kilometres away from Kano, to the city to beg for alms daily is indeed heartbreaking. Passersby struggle in vain not to stare, as she carries on, on her way to eke out a living.
It was gathered that Rahama wasn’t born with deformities, but was a healthy girl, full of life and aspirations to go to school. According to her brother Fahad, 14, who carries her in the plastic container on his head, the incident that saw his once-lively sister transformed happened years back, when she just collapsed and simply could never walk again.
“Her case, we were told, wasn’t that which orthodox medication could cure. We were told it has to do with djinn, and our parents have done that they could in the hospital and also in other traditional aspects, but her condition kept worsening to an extent we gave up on her recovery,” narrated Fahad.
According to Rahama, life has not been easy, as she cannot do much on her own. But, she added, she has grown to understand that she’s unlike others, therefore learning to accept her situation in good faith. The teenager told Daily Trust that she considers herself lucky to be alive, as a brother of hers who suffered the same illness died. She also said, initially, she found it depressing when people get scared upon sighting her, but she has learned to live with that.
Rahama also said: “I’ve learnt to grow up without friends in life; I can only do little to myself and my family are the only friends I have. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that not all people are equal. I don’t care. In fact I consider myself lucky to be alive.” She added that she has accepted her condition in good faith.
A Kano-based philanthropist, businessman Alhaji Ibrahim M. Jirgi, recently donated a wheelchair to an ecstatic Rahama. According to him, the sight of the teen being carried about in a plastic container is enough to move every sane person. “I don’t know her from Adam, but I believe a little help can make her life easier, he said.
