NEBBI — For 25 years, Aldo Ovurutho watched the world move while he remained confined to the same spot.
The 40-year-old resident of Pubidhi Ayabu Lower Cell in Central Division, Nebbi Municipality, spent most of his adult life unable to walk after a mysterious condition left him crippled at the age of 15.
On Thursday, June 18, 2026, that changed.
With the help of local leaders and officials from Nebbi Municipality, Aldo received his first-ever wheelchair, a life-changing donation that finally gave him the freedom to move independently.
As he sat in the wheelchair for the first time, a broad smile spread across his face.
“I'll now be able to come to town and the market by myself,” Aldo said.
“For 25 years I waited. Today, I move.”
Aldo's ordeal began in 2001 while he was a Primary Six pupil at Pubidhi Primary School. He recalls initially experiencing mild pain in his knees and joints before his condition gradually worsened.
“I started staggering while walking,” he said.
As the weakness progressed, his legs became increasingly paralysed until he could no longer walk. The condition forced him to abandon his education and remain largely dependent on family members for daily survival.
Unable to move freely, Aldo could not visit friends, participate in community activities or engage in income-generating work on his own.
His situation came to the attention of officials from the Community-Based Services Department during a field visit earlier this year.
Through support from the National Special Grant for Persons with Disabilities, the department secured a wheelchair worth Shs600,000 for him.
Volunteers adjusted the wheelchair to fit him and trained him on how to use it independently.
According to Mandhawun Harriet, the Community Development Officer and focal person for persons with disabilities in Nebbi Municipality, Aldo's circumstances compelled the department to prioritise his case.
“We profiled Aldo when we came across him during a field visit in Pubidhi earlier this year, but funding was the challenge,” Harriet said.
“When this donation came, we prioritised him because 25 years is too long to wait.”
She said the department is currently mapping other persons with disabilities who lack mobility aids and hopes to mobilise additional support, including vocational skills training, for those capable of learning and engaging in economic activities.
Nebbi Municipal Mayor Jackline Opar personally wheeled Aldo's new chair to his compound and helped him settle into it as residents gathered to witness the emotional moment.
“For 25 years you have waited. Today, Nebbi says you deserve dignity and movement,” Opar told him as neighbours applauded.
“You are the right candidate for this device and you were rightfully identified by our technical staff from the field, not because you are someone's relative, but because you were genuinely in need.”
The story has also exposed the resource constraints facing programmes that support persons with disabilities in the municipality.
Officials say the Community-Based Services Department receives only about Shs3 million annually for programmes targeting persons with disabilities, a figure they describe as inadequate given the growing demand for mobility aids and other support services.
For Aldo, however, the wheelchair represents far more than a government donation.
It is the end of 25 years of waiting and the beginning of a new chapter marked by freedom, dignity and renewed independence.
As he slowly rolled away in his new wheelchair, Aldo's joy was unmistakable.
After spending more than half his life unable to move on his own, he was finally going somewhere.