Alain Meyoghe has been wheelchair bound for most of his young life since an attack of poliomyelitis at the age of three.
But now he uses his wheelchair to make a living as a roaming telephone booth.
Meyoghe (26) and a couple of dozen other handicapped men are a familiar sight in Libreville, the capital of the West African state of Gabon — crisscrossing the city centre with portable phone stations on the back of their hand-powered tricycle wheelchairs.
The operation is the fruit of a partnership between the mobile phone operator Telecel, a company that operates phone cabins, Amla, and a foundation run by first lady Edith Lucie Bongo.
Meyoghe has been a portable phone cabin manager for the past six months, operating in and around a downtown shopping centre.
”Before, I used to make shoes. But I worked for someone else and the money I got was a joke,” said Meyoghe, an athletic young man whose wheelchair is garlanded with plastic phone cards.
He says he can now earn up to 10 000 CFA francs ($18,6) a day, a decent amount in Libreville that allows him to look after the needs of himself, his small daughter and his mother, with whom he lives.
”May I call,” asks a young woman. She says she uses Meyoghe’s portable cabin when the airtime on her own cellphone runs out.
Meyoghe buys phone cards for 50 000 CFA francs, and makes a profit of about 30 000 francs on each card.
”You have to learn to manage money,” said Meyoghe, who has never done any studies. ”At first it was difficult.”
Other handicapped men who have tried the job have dropped out and returned to begging on the streets, he said.
No particular qualifications are needed to be a roaming phone man. It helps to be good with people.
The young woman hangs up, and hands over a few coins. The price of the call shows on a display in front of Meyoghe. As soon as she leaves, a man in a business suit steps up to make a call. In the evening, Meyoghe travels several kilometres to a nightclub in search of business.
Another wheelchair phone operator is Nigerian Abdoulaye Bala, who says he makes between 3 000 and 4 000 francs most days — enough to support his wife and three children.
The head of the national association of handicapped people, Julien Nyare, said the phone programme is ”very good,” but regretted that the association was not consulted.
Marc Ona, president of a civic organisation called Handicap without Borders also praised the programme, but said it was a pity so few people could benefit from it.
At the last census in 1997, Gabon had 13 000 handicapped people in a population of about one million. The population has now increased to about 1,3-million. – Sapa-AFP