A Boy, an Accident, and Learning to Walk Again

He is thirteen, and an accident took his left leg. What he needs now is the chance to walk again.

He lives on the outskirts of Greater Cairo with his father, who collects garbage for a living, his mother, who keeps their home, and two younger sisters in elementary school. The thing standing between him and an ordinary day is specific and solvable: a properly fitted prosthetic leg, along with a silicone liner so the prosthetic can actually be worn and used. The cost is about 500,000 EGP.

This is one of those needs where you can see the outcome clearly. Not an abstraction. Not a statistic. A thirteen-year-old standing up, walking to school, keeping pace with his sisters, doing the everyday things an accident took from him.

The local diocese committed about 50,000 EGP. Luke's Kids stepped in for the remaining 450,000 EGP, roughly $9,100, to get him fitted with the prosthetic and the liner he needs.

A boy who lost a leg at thirteen has already lived through more than any child should. The least the rest of us can do is make sure he gets to walk into whatever comes next.