The dream of 13-year-old physically challenged pupil, Frank Jilimah, to become an engineer in future has received a major boost having been enrolled back to school.
The engineering-inclined young boy from Nansongdo in the Nanumba North District in the Northern Region was born healthy, strong, and smart until an unforeseen incident left him almost without prospects.
This was after his right leg was amputated after an accident with a tricycle in 2020 when he was returning from the Chamba community to the family house.
He had gone to buy a pair of sandals and other educational materials to prepare for school on a bicycle when the tricycle rider knocked him down.
Frank went through a couple of treatments, the most recent of which was a surgery at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, but his condition did not improve, making life extremely difficult to cope with, leading to an amputation of the right.
Frank is in the business of using cardboard and empty cans to manufacture miniature vehicles, trucks, drones, houses, and airplanes.
He lost hope of becoming the engineer he aspired to be since he had to walk with crutches, which somehow affected and limited his movement.
This caused him to stay back home for several years without education until luck struck through the intervention of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who got to know about the story of Frank through the Dean of his Vice Presidential Press Corps and DAILY GUIDE’s Charles Takyi-Boadu, and decided to come to the aid of the young boy.
On seeing the story, Takyi-Boadu forwarded it to the Vice President, who was touched by his plight and offered to bear the cost of securing a prosthetic leg for Frank, including the payment of other medical expenses at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, to enable him to walk as well as go back to school to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer in future.
The Vice President’s support also catered for tuition fee to enable Frank to be enrolled back to school, as well as the provision of items such as school uniforms, school bags, sandals, new crutches, books, pens, pencils, among other learning materials.
A visit to Chamba in the Nanumba North District in the Northern Region by DAILY GUIDE, showed Frank and his family excited on his first day at school after his recovery.
DAILY GUIDE observed that Frank was happy and determined to start school again when he entered the classroom.
In an exclusive interview with Frank, he thanked Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for coming to his aid, and assured him that he will learn hard to make him proud.
“I am happy that I can now walk and will be able to go back to school again, and I will like to say thank you to Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for supporting me to be able to achieve my dream of becoming an engineer in future,” he stated.
Frank’s father, Jilimah Addo, also expressed his gratitude to the Vice President for everything he has done to ensure that his son gets the needed medical support.
“What Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has done for my son and the entire family, we can never pay him back, and all I can say is that God richly bless him.
“I’m so excited that my son is walking again and back to school, and his dream to become an engineer is possible again. I will do my best as a father to make sure that I guide him to achieve his dreams,” he added.
BY Eric Kombat, Chamba