Success Stories
New Opportunities for Angolan Amputees
Credit: J. Neves
Ido Elias, also known as "Lito”, is 15 years old, with bright eyes and a shy smile he tries to hide whenever he is asked a direct question. Despite his timidity in conversation, he is a force to reckon with on the basketball court. Spinning in circles and popping wheelies in between quarters, he is an aggressive player, yet knows how to have a good time.
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), financed by U.S. government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided Lito with a wheelchair last year, which has allowed him a level of mobility he has not always had. The chair also means Lito can attend school. He often carries his notebook in his lap and says that Portuguese is his favorite subject and that he would like to be a doctor one day.
Though all the signs indicate that Lito suffered from polio at the age of 2, when you ask him, he says this was not the case. Lito and his family believe that it was a "fitzero” or wizard who cursed him and gave him the high fever and inflammation in his limbs. Whatever the cause, the illness left him with permanent weakness and loss of movement in his legs.
Lito’s wheelchair and VVAF’s Sports for Life initiative have provided Lito with another opportunity the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball. He was a late starter and a bit shy his first day of practice, but is now one of the team’s top players. He started in the competition for Luena Day in front of many of his classmates who could be heard cheering from the sides, "Vai, Lito, vai!” He is hopeful that he will be chosen to represent his home province, Moxico, in a national wheelchair basketball competition sponsored by Angola’s Paralympic Committee at the end of this year.
