Lydia Wetsi 

Two years ago, a MoM staffer discovered Lydia, now age 14, working in the village market. She had been treated only with traditional herbal remedies and her arm had never healed from that seemingly simple insect bite. For 11 year, it seeped pus and blood and the infection spread to the adjacent muscles and bones. The pain forced Lydia to hold her wrist tight to her shoulder and after years of this position, Lydia could no longer extend her elbow or wrist. The bones had fused and the muscles had deteriorated.

           The Mom staffers were drawn to Lydia’s smile and sparkling personality and knew that they could change her future. Lydia’s mother and aunt permitted the MoM staffers to bring Lydia back to the airfield for treatment. What originally was planned to be a simple and brief course of antibiotic treatment became an astonishing life-changing passage. From the moment she moved to the airfield, she became part of the MoM family. Lydia underwent months of treatment and extensive surgical reconstruction to help restore partial function of her right arm. During Lydia’s treatment and rehabilitation, she showed tremendous enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn and was accepted into the AvTech Academy.

          Lydia displays a passion for all things aviation. She is trained as a first responder; she has mastered airport communications and she loves being on the radio and directing pilots; she is training to be a Rotax engineer. And now Lydia is poised to be the youngest GCAA-certified pilot and the first disabled pilot in Ghana.

Read more about Lydia's remarkable journey on the Medicine on the Move blog.