BETHEL – Ayuba Gufwan, a polio survivor from Nigeria, visited the Bethel area on April 14.

Gufwan contracted the disease at age 4. In Nigeria, children with polio are not treated, are considered as “throw-away children” and only look forward to a life as a cripple. Most of them can only crawl. They have no means of going to schools, which are often several kilometers away.

At 18, Gufwan was given a basket bicycle, which finally allowed him to attend school. Since most polio survivors lose the use of their legs, basket bicycles allow them to sit in a seat and use their arms to propel the bicycle.

Gufwan addressed the Bethel Rotary Club on Tuesday morning, showing a video of his country’s many polio survivors who do not yet have any means of mobility other than crawling. There were guests from other clubs.

Gufwan’s message was that Rotarians are participating in a wonderful project by attempting to eradicate polio throughout the world by vaccinating all children under age 5 in infected countries. However, thousands of polio survivors need rehabilitation.

He has dedicated himself to the rehabilitation project. Although he has a teaching certificate and a law degree, Gufwan felt he could better serve his people by building basket bicycles. He built his first bike in 1999.

Now his factory has several employees, four of which are polio survivors like him. To date they have built and given 2,700 bicycles to polio survivors. Some of the events were shown in his video. The bicycles cost approximately $150 to produce.

Gufwan visited Crescent Park Elementary and, after showing the video, he answered questions. Later he visited Telstar High School where the questions were even more in depth.

Gufwan’s hostess in the United States is Ann Lee Hussey, a polio survivor herself and the future governor of Rotary District 7780. Stacey and Kamil Sahin were hosts for their visit to Bethel.