For over 18 years, Mezelina Kutsapa has endured the pain of taking care of her three children with disabilities who can neither walk nor talk.
It was 11 am when MBC found her at her home in Tchitee Village, Ntchisi. Although it was just an hour to lunchtime, the family had nothing else for a meal apart from boiled bananas. They could not even afford salt to apply to the meal to give it some taste.
Kutsapa’s situation is very dire. Out of her six children, half are living with various forms of disabilities. The eldest of them all is 18-year-old, Isaac. He can’t move an inch of his limbs. Stephani and Bridget, literally crawl like babies trying their first steps in life.
Their home seats some 20 kilometres to the East of Ntchisi boma. The plight of the household is locked deep in perpetual poverty, and the disabilities of their children are weighing the family down.
Stigmatised by some sections of their community, the Kutsapas are a family in need of support.
A wife of a timber miller, Kutsapa said from birth everything looked normal for her children until the time they were expected to walk.
“When they were about to walk we were surprised that they wouldn’t,” said the mother of the children.
Her day-to-day tasks include taking them in and out of their grass thatched house, carrying them to the toilet when the need arises and helping them to have a bath.
“For Isaac, he can’t sit upright and that means he answers to the call of nature while laying flat. At night it’s worse because they can’t say whether they want to go out or not,” said the mother who said at times she wishes her children were adopted.
There is no doubt that the Kutsapas are sailing on the deepest end of poverty and are in desperate need of a bailout from well-wishers.
