A 74-year-old man with disability, a resident of Du-Port Road community, Zeea Lolon Harris, has expressed difficulty working with substandard tools as a carpenter, and is calling on government and humanitarian groupings to equip him.
“I don’t have the materials to work with,” Harris, a disabled carpenter, said in a pitiful tone. “I am just forcing things to live.”
According to him, he does not have funds to buy materials, but keeps the little amount people often gave him and, when it increases, he buys materials.
“If I eat it and it finish from my hand, l will have nothing to do. So l keep it and buy materials,” Harris Said.
Due to his impotency, people pity his condition and hire him to do their work. He is married with six children and other step ones. His hand was cut as a result of grenade explosion.
“In 2015, l was brushing someone’s land. While brushing, the cutlass went into a grenade,” he said, with tears seeping from his eyes. “When l lifted it up, it exploded in my hand and cut one hand and damaged the other hand’s fingers.”
Before his nightmare, he fished and burned charcoal to survive. But with his present condition, he no longer does jobs like those; rather, he gets humanitarian assistance. He designs what people want to purchase based on their request.
“People tell me to do their tables, bed frames, chairs, cashbox, and other carpenter works, and they paid me,” Pa Harris said.
But using hammer to nail furniture is tedious for him, and he is calling on the government, Council of Churches, Muslim Council, non-governmental organizations and others to equip him with modern tools or funds.
“I am appealing to government and other people to feel sorry for me and help me to get materials like soft cutter, sand paper machine, electric puncher and money for my wife to sell coal. If l get the materials or money, l will not use hammer because it strains me too much.”
At present, he squats on a relative land with his family. He has been residing on the Du-Port Road since 1988, according to him.