Lahai Makieu cuts a piece of bamboo. Balancing on his crutch, he reaches to pick it up. But fellow workers pull the bamboo’s other end, and he tumbles into the grass.
“They forgot I had one leg,” the trainer at a center for amputee farmers says, laughing. He picks himself up and adds, “We fall and we rise.”
The phrase reflects his own life. Makieu’s left leg was amputated after rebels shot him when he was a child. From 1991 to 2002, civil war in Sierra Leone created some 28,000 amputees. Even now, amputation rates remain high due to motorbike accidents and poor medical care.
Amputees are often regarded as a shameful reminder of the civil war. They are not often welcomed into communities. Many resort to begging and must live on the streets.
But the Farming on Crutches initiative where Makieu works near the capital, Freetown, offers help. It aims to restore amputees’ confidence and independence by teaching them skills to start farm businesses. The staff has trained 100 amputees and wants to expand the work.
“Many [amputees] are being rejected by their families and communities,” Mambud Samai says. He’s a pastor and the founder of Farming on Crutches. He felt moved to help after being a refugee himself during the war.
First, Samai organized beach soccer matches for amputees to boost their confidence.
But soccer was not enough. As a farmer, he saw agriculture as a path to self-sufficiency. In 2020, he started teaching amputees how to farm and become leaders.
The project’s name reflects widespread use of crutches instead of prosthetic legs in Sierra Leone. Foreign donors distributed prosthetics after the civil war, but many people say they don’t fit well and cause sores. And the country’s only prosthetic clinic is too expensive for many.
A farming charity in Great Britain helps finance Farming on Crutches, but Samai says more support from Sierra Leone’s government is needed to expand.
The government invests more than $600 million in agriculture. But some say that investment benefits large-scale agriculture over small-scale farmers, such as Farming on Crutches’ trainees.
The training transformed Makieu’s life. He learned to use farm waste for fertilizer and bamboo sticks for fences. He set up a small farm operation this year with his wife, Zanib, who is also an amputee. They met during the training and now have a child. Makieu wants to inspire future farmers.
“We are created for fellowship, not isolation,” Samai says. “When we return [from training], we are not as we came. We go home to serve our community as rural leaders.”
Why? God created humans to do fulfilling work. Helping others find such opportunities—even when faced with unique challenges—is a worthy endeavor.
