During the last seven months of my Peace Corps service, I am featuring photographs and stories of several persons with disabilities living in Cameroon. All the photos are part of a series called “Persons with Disabilities of Cameroon.” The goal of presenting photographs and their stories is to create better awareness about the plights that persons with disabilities face in a developing country. When I return to the US, I hope to exhibit this series in a gallery and publish a book to educate others about persons with disabilities living in developing countries as this topic is so rarely discussed in the media.

When first entering the home of Joseph, I saw him outside of the house doing yard work.  The way he was doing yard work was unusual.  He was sitting on a small bench and sweeping the dirt while sitting on the bench.  To move, he would lift the bench while on it with both hands and move it a few centimeters forward.

After he finished his yard work, I entered his residence.  He lives in an unfinished dark one room that is attached to his son’s house.  The floors and walls are unfinished.  The floor is nothing but dirt.  In the room, there is a bed with a mosquito net, a wood stove for cooking, a bookshelf and a couple of small benches.  This gentleman stays in this room all day and every day except when he goes outside for a few minutes to do yard work.  He leaves his compound only once a month when he goes to the hospital.

Joseph was a police officer for 27 years.  He worked for the Cameroonian government in three regions, Northwest, Southwest, and East.  When he turned 50 years old in 1992, he had to retire because of the age limit for police officers.  It’s a policy in Cameroon.  If he had a higher status, such as principal or commissioner, he could have worked until 55 or 60 years respectively.

When he retired, he switched to small farming.  Even though retirement benefits exist for police officers in Cameroon, he did not receive any benefits due to taking a case to the court.  The case was about wrongly killing a prisoner.  Joseph and other police officers were able to prove in high court in Yaounde and to the General Delegation for National Security that the commissioner did indeed wrongly kill the prisoner.  Because they won the case, other commissioners at the police office where he worked at the time wrote negative statements in the records about Joseph that resulted in cutting his retirement benefits.

In 2009, one day long after Joseph retired, all of a sudden he was shaking and fell and hit his right hip and broke the hip.  He did not go to the doctor.  He had no money for medical care.  He never received an x-Ray or any kind of assessment or treatment.  He can no longer stand up and walk.  He also cannot move his right leg.  He feels pain all the time in his right hip and upper part of his right leg.  “I feel pain all the time,” he said.  As a result, he can only move by sitting on a small bench and lifting and pushing himself on the bench.

Even though Joseph has never seen a doctor for his hip issue, he goes to the hospital once a month to see a doctor for diabetes and hypertension.  When I asked him why he has money for diabetes and hypertension but not for his hip, he explained that he can afford to pay for diabetes and hypertension but not his hip issue.  He said that he pays 10,000 CFA (USD$ 17) once a month for transportation, doctor, medicines, and lab tests.  He said to pay for the hip issue, it costs a lot more money and is not affordable.  The money comes from his savings that he saved during his time as a police officer and from a good “Samaritan” who stopped by his home and gave him money.  His son, Albert, brings a moto bike driver to the front door of his home.  He helps him get on the moto bike and takes him to the hospital and brings him back home.  This is the only time he leaves his compound.

When Joseph broke his hip, he had to give up his work on the small farm owned by his son that is located in another part of Bamenda.  Albert brought him to his compound to live with his family so that he could get help.

When I asked Joseph what is his biggest barrier, he said, “I cannot move anywhere.  I cannot go to church.  I cannot watch football with the crowds. I cannot go anywhere.  I want any help I can get to fix my hip.”

He then added,  “When my family, my nephew, died. I could not go to the funeral.”