Paraplegic meets life's challenges
Paraplegic meets life's challenges
JAKARTA (JP): The ultimate challenge for a handicapped person
is showing that they are worth their weight in gold, just as 29-
year-old Osmiyati has done.
A paraplegic, Osmiyati uses a wheelchair while working as a
telephone operator at the office of the giant Arco oil company or
while running a small restaurant, which she jointly owns with her
friends.
Osmiyati, who is affectionately known to her friends as Miya,
has suffered from paraplegia for the past nine years, after a
tragic accident in the hilly West Java town of Sukabumi, some 120
kilometers south of here.
To Miya, Sept. 24, 1989, is an unforgettable day. She and 50
other friends were on their way home from a camping trip, when
the truck they were riding on skidded and crashed into a cliff,
killing four of her friends and injuring several others,
including herself.
Recovering from her injury, Miya was confronted with the
bitter fact that would be all an attractive, energetic girl could
bear: The lower part of her body was paralyzed. In her despair,
she quit her studies at the ASMI secretarial academy and began to
avoid her friends.
Miya's life underwent great changes -- from enjoying her
outdoor youthful life to following therapy sessions, from lively
mountain climbing to sitting bored in her wheelchair. But her
parents had always encouraged her to accept the reality of life
and to never give up hope.
It took her parents seven long years before they finally
succeeded in restoring Miya's self-confidence.
"I then realized that I could not always depend on my parents
for the rest of my life," she told The Jakarta Post.
"I will be a burden to them and I won't have a future if I
rely too much on them," Miya said confidently.
She asked her parents's permission to let her stay at the
Jakarta Wisma Cheshire, an infirmary for paraplegics funded by
the London-based Leonard Cheshire Foundation, on Jl. Wijaya
Kusumah, South Jakarta.
At the Wisma, Miya and 30 other paraplegics learn how to take
care of themselves.
More than once she fell from her wheelchair while taking a
bath and had to grapple with whatever she could reach before
getting back on the chair. At first, it was quite an effort but
now she can easily take a bath herself.
She has been staying at the Wisma for 18 months now and is
planning to leave soon. Not only has she recovered her
confidence, but she has also had a great deal of training on how
to move around freely in the wheelchair.
She spends her leisure time visiting shopping malls and
theaters. She does not hesitate to ask help from passersby
whenever she needs it.
She complains, however, that the government has not provided
enough public facilities for physically handicapped people.
She also plans to finish her secretarial studies.
One of her burning desires is to become a legislator so that
she could fight for the interests of physically handicapped
people in Indonesia.
She said at the end of the interview: "If you have relatives
or friends who suffer from paraplegia, don't hesitate to tell
them to visit the Wisma so that we can help them to be more self-
reliant." (04)