A man without a profession, without a skill to feed himself and his family, is at the mercy of any person with power. In Africa this is ubiquitous and forces most people to be at the mercy of corruption and unscrupulous men with money.

Add to this missing a limb and life could be difficult. Ano lost his arm at 18 in a motorcycle accident in. He is now 24, although when I first met him, I thought he was 16.

Losing his arm was a difficult thing for Ano, but when I met him years later, he was a respectful, content person, living with his parents and family, which is not out of the ordinary in Africa, and raising rats for sale to eat (they are field rats, bigger and tastier than a American rats.)

Aladji first came up to me with the idea to have him run the AADB office that he was in the process of opening in Bangou. I didn’t know him so I asked first to talk to him first.

His missing arm has not diminished his enthusiasm for learning computers. His disability only makes him work harder than most others to learn computers.

After a few months of training, which AADB has paid in full for him, he is doing a great job running the AABD office, typing and printing documents, making photocopies helping clients as well as Aladji run the AADB ‘pied a terre’.

Ano is someone that AADB can point to and proudly say we have helped make his life better.

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