Until recently, a six-year-old Kyrgyz boy was only able to get around by sitting in a washtub and dragging himself around.
Nurjigit’s disability kept him homebound and unable to attend school. His family couldn’t afford the health care or a wheelchair.
Last May, Radio Free Europe reported on Nurjigit’s situation, which brought international attention to the boy.
Kyrgyzstan’s Social Development Minister Kudaibergen Bazarbaev recently visited Nurjigit to deliver a wheelchair to him after seeing the report from last spring. The politician also helped arrange health care for the boy, who underwent surgery on one of his legs at a hospital in the country’s capital. He will soon learn to walk with braces.
In addition to the wheelchair, Nurjigit received an electric scooter from a Kyrgyz ex-pat living in Japan, who also saw the story and was moved.
“Now Nurjigit is going to school. It makes us very happy because we used to just sit at home for five or six years.” the boy’s mother Mirgul Sagynbek Kyzy told RFE. “I was told my son could be taught at home, but I resisted. I wanted him to socialize with other kids, not to feel depressed and alone.”
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