It is a special day for Jaida. It will start with a field trip in an old wheelbarrow. Jaida, 42, is Tibetan. She has been paralyzed since birth. She is a tetrapalegic, a deformation of the spine which paralyzes both arms and legs.

 Jaida at home.

At 830am this morning, Jaida's younger sister Zhuoni gets up and goes into the barn behind her house. Jaida sleeps here, next to a pile of hay for the livestock. She lies on a pile of dirty blankets and carpets that stink of feces and urine. Jaida must sleep here, because she is also mentally disturbed, explains her sister.  "She cannot warn us when she needs to go to the bathroom" said Zhuoni.  "and we are too poor to buy enough bed sheets."

The barn where Jaida sleeps.

1600 Kilometers from Chengdu

Every morning, Zhuoni heaves her handicapped sister onto her back and carries her next door, to her home, warmed by an iron stove. For 42 years, since her birth, this has been Jaida's world: the pile of hay at night and the stove during the day. A pile of hay also lies here on the concrete floor. Jaida sits on it, her crooked spine leaning up against the bed board.

This is where Jaida sleeps, on a stinking heap of blankets in the barn.

Only twice has Jaida seen anything else. Her sister once carried her on her back up the hill behind her house to the temple. A kilometer away. "I used to be able to do it -- now she has become too heavy for me," said Zhuoni. She weighs 40 kilos. Jaida understands, when one speaks about her.  "I weigh four pounds," she calls. The whole family laughs. Everyone loves Jaida and her jokes.

 Zhuoni carrying Jaida.

Jaida sleeps amongst the straw because her family is too poor to afford better care. Jaida's father was a veterinarian here in Shiqu, a small town in the Tibetan Highlands. Shiqu is surrounded by grassland and high peaks, itself 4200 meters above sea level. 1600 kilometers of dangerous mountain roads separate this village from the nearest airport in Chengdu. Even now in Spring it still snows heavily. Yaks and sheep gnaw hungrily at the last edible grass stalks.
 
Almost all of the inhabitants of Shiqu are poor herders.  Since Jaida's father died six years ago, the family lives off of emergency funds made available by the government for the handicapped. It is about 2000 yuan per year. It is barely enough to survive. Zhuoni must work as often as possible as a laborer for road construction. She earns between 20 and 25 yuan per day. The Chinese government provides handicapped like Jaida with the essentials. But her lot here on the Tibetan Plateau very hard. There is no money for medical check ups or any type of care.  "My 15 year old son Zhaxi must take care of Jaida while I am working," said her sister.  "Then he can't go to school."

Jaida's family

Today Zhuoni borrowed a wheelbarrow from her neighbors. The wheelbarrow is dirty, covered with mortar from house construction. Jaida laughs anyway, as she sits in it. Zhuoni pushes her handicapped sister across the main street of Shiqu. This is the first time Jaida has seen the place.  "Someone told us that some foreigners were giving out wheelchairs," said Zhuoni.

Kham Aid wheelchairs

Just outside the city limits of Shiqu, the foreigners are unloading the wheelchairs, still packed in cardboard. The aid organization Kham Aid, founded by Californian Pam Logan, collected the funds for the project in Europe and America.

Volunteers working on a wheelchair

Several doctor and physiotherapists have sacrificed their vacations to help with the
assembly and handing out of the chairs.  "Many people only think of human rights when they hear about Tibet," said Pam Logan.  "But I see people who are fighting for their survival against poverty."

Waiting patients

A large crowd has assembled to wait for the wheelchairs. A few have brought their handicapped relatives several hundred kilometers through valleys and through fields without streets. 76 year old grandpa Onzha, who can't walk well anymore, is the first in line. The the 10 year old Cuoma, whose legs have been crippled since birth.

Patients waiting to be seen

                                                                                   

People watching in the crowd

Many leave empty handed.

And finally Jaida. It is not easy to cut the foam cushions so they fit just right. Eventually they fit. Jaida beams.

Eunice Shen, head of the wheelchair program, and Jaida

"In every village that we arrive in, we are immediately surrounded by handicapped people," said Eunice Shen, a volunteer from the USA who runs the Kham Aid wheelchair program.  "It is real hard to send those people away with no help." A simple wheelchair produced in China costs about 180Euro. Kham Aid has given away about 1000 to the people of this remote mountain region in the last seven years.  "But we never have enough," said Eunice Shen. "Every year crippled children are born, men have accidents, old people become too fragile to walk." Today dozens of handicapped people leave with empty hands.

 
A child getting a wheelchair

Eunice Shen working with an old man. He says thank you

Around two o'clock, the wheelbarrow heads back empty, pushed by Jaida's mother.  Jaida rides in her new wheelchair, rolled by her ecstatic sister Zhuoni.  "This is not a sewing machine, this is a bicycle," says Jaida. Everybody laughs.

Jaida heading home in her new wheelchair

Jaida, Zhouni, and Henrik Bork

Reprinted with permission of Kham Aid

Original German version may be found athttp://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt7m2/panorama/artikel/940/116824/.
English translation provided by Sascha Matuszak