Three hundred (300) children with brittle bone disease in Lagos and Delta States both in southern Nigeria were joyous as they were gifted wheelchairs by a non-governmental organisation, Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation Nigeria.
While giving a breakdown of the distribution in Lagos on Thursday, the founder of the organisation, Ms Tarela Aghanti, Founder of OIFN, said 200 wheelchairs would be distributed in Lagos, while 100 would be shared in Agbor, Delta State.
She explained that brittle bone disease is not witchcraft-related, but a rare medical disorder, and appealed to the public to accept and love children with the medical condition.
Aghanti said her foundation organised the free distribution of walking aids and wheelchairs to show love to children living with the disease and called on other privileged persons and corporate bodies to always remember those with the disorder.
Osteogenesis Imperfecta also known as brittle bone disease is an inherited genetic bone disorder that is present at birth, and which makes bones fragile, causing them to break easily.
Brittle bone occurs in approximately one in every 10,000 to 20,000 births, varies considerably in severity, and has no racial or ethnic predisposition.
Aghanti said that awareness about osteogenesis imperfecta was low in Nigeria with many people attributing the disease to a spiritual problem that requires prayers and deliverance.
