Little Asher

Last week I travelled to Ndola—a city in Zambia’s Copperbelt province.  It’s a beautiful city—lush with flowering jacaranda trees and green evergreens (unusual as Zambia is in its hot and dry season).

In the midst of all of Ndola’s natural beauty, I met its greatest gem—Asher.  Asher is a sweet little 2-year-old boy.  He loves to play, run and jokes around like most toddlers all over the world, except for one thing—Asher was born with clubfeet.

A week after he was born, his mother, Jenny, took little Asher to a local hospital.  There, Asher went through 20 castings and was even given a tenotomy (a minor surgery to release the tendons in the foot), but the results were unsuccessful.  After a year and a half, Asher’s condition worsened.  His feet began turning inward, and he could no longer walk or stand.

Asher’s parents were completely devastated.  They blamed themselves for Asher’s clubfeet.  Both of Asher’s parents were victims of polio and disabled as a result of the disease.  For this reason, they felt that their disability was the cause of Asher’s.

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