Emmanuel’s Gift – Film Showing

EMMANUEL’S GIFT – film showing
Thursday April 10th
7pm

Bikes Not Bombs’ newest international project gets underway in April, to setting up an entire bicycle workshop within wheelchair reach, to employ a full staff of disabled mechanics in Ghana. The project is a partnership between Bikes Not Bombs and a foundation in Ghana created by an extraordinary man, Emmanuel Yeboah. The documentary Emmanuel’s Gift is narrated by Oprah Winfrey and by following Emmanuel’s struggles and achievements, it gives a background for this new project. In late April Bikes Not Bombs will send a shipment of nearly 500 donated bicycles to get the project started. The 40 foot shipping container will be put on the ground, with doors and windows cut in the metal sides so that it becomes part of the structure of the new workshop.

Both introducing and following the film, we’ll have a discussion with David Branigan and Carl Kurz. David is a BNB shop mechanic who has 3 years previous experience in Ghana in the Peace Corps, and he’ll spend the first five months as technical trainer for this project. Carl is BNB’s founder and International Programs Director.

Emmanuel Yeboah was born with a severely deformed leg. The stigma of disability is strong in Ghana, and his father abandoned the family. Emmanuel’s mother enrolled him in school and taught him that he deserved the same opportunities as everyone else, but when she fell ill he left school and took up shining shoes on the street to support the family. After his mother’s death left Emmanuel an orphan he began a personal campaign to spread the empowering philosophy he learned from her. From foreign aid workers he heard of a foundation to help disabled athletes and he wrote a letter requesting a bicycle, with a dream of cycling across Ghana to raise awareness and respect for the disabled. Emmanuel received the bike and made the cross-country trip, which led to more opportunities: a trip to the US to compete in paralympics, a prosthetic leg, a second cross-Ghana bicycle trip, recognition from government officials, a new law in Ghana mandating improved access for disabled people, and lastly the EEFSA foundation to create employment and sports opportunities for disabled Ghanaians. It is this foundation which has partnered with Bikes Not Bombs. We’re excited to show this film on the big screen here at BNB, and discuss the upcoming project launch!

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