When Elisha Foli woke up that fateful day, little did he know that the pains he experienced in his wrist would turn to be his nemesis, a dreadful experience he would forever live with, probably.
The 22-year-old graduate of the Labone Senior High School was not born with a disability, but today, he barely can do anything with his left hand.
He sees himself living with that deformity “till I leave [this world].”
In 2010, he detected a strange condition in the left palm and underwent surgery.
Shortly after that, the fingers began to coil into the palm, and not even a corrective surgery in 2018 could change the situation.
“When I felt the pains in my left hand, I thought it was something that comes and go so it will just slide.”
“I had a surgery in the form of ‘s’ in 2018, but that surgery too was not successful in bringing back my palm to its original situation,” he recounted.
Disappointed in the turnout of events, Elisha gave up on his dream of becoming a pilot and an engineer.
He blames it on his current condition.
“It’s unfortunate, I’ve left it aside due to the condition I’m in right now – my hand that’s not in a good condition because I know that for you to be a pilot, you have to get all your two hands working,” he explained.
Elisha Foli found another love and passion.
This time, he chose to save the environment by turning coconut shells into eco-friendly household items for domestic and international patrons.
“My main reason or my main purpose for this coconut craft was to reduce the waste in the country and to introduce echo-friendly lifestyle to people.”
“Whenever I’m working and let’s say Something hits my left hand, I really feel the pain,” he observed.
When he purchases the dry coconuts, he peels off the husk, scoops out the food and shapes them into bowls, cups, containers, phone holders and Bluetooth speakers, among other products.
“I apply coconut oil on the coconut shell. After a year, the shell absorbs all the oil that’s now on the shell. When that happens, you can just apply any oil on it to bring back its original colour, but the preferred oil is the coconut oil,” Elisha illustrated in an interview with TV3.
He is appealing for support to expand his business and procure modern machines to manufacture products in large quantities.
“I would need a bigger workshop and also more machines. Because of my left hand, I sometimes struggle to operate efficiently using my current machine, and that makes work challenging,” he said.
Elisha Foli says he is unwilling to experience another surgery, following the pain, discrimination and trauma he has survived over the years.
But he is open to any form of support that can turn things around in his life.
“I can say l’ve given up on a third surgery. After going through the first pain and second pain and for me to go through a third pain and not to see my hand back to the original form as it was when I was brought to this earth, then I will just have to live with that till I leave,” he said.
Elisha has enrolled at the Ghana Communication Technology University to study data science and analytics.
This is his advice for people living with disabilities.
“Move out of your comfort zone and do something extraordinary to help you succeed in life. Think deep within your heart and look at that disability and get an ability within that disability that you have yourself in,” he advised.