Emmanuel's Dream

Inspirational wirh illustrations that serve the uplifting story. Author's note fleshes out the details. Reading through YMA winners now, and this one was a beautiful starting point.

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born with just one strong leg, but, despite the restrictions and prejudices against disabled people of his time and place, he was able to attend school and travel a four hundred miles on a bicycle speaking up for his message that disability doesn't mean inability.

I like the illustrations, I like the story. :-)
Yeah, it's a little “inspiration porn”, but on the other hand, it isn't. Emmanuel isn't inspirational because he's handicapped, he is inspirational in spite of it. He didn't do anything that wasn't difficult for all of us, how ever “lacking” we are. And we all are lacking somehow. Might not be obvious, but it's there. That's being a human being.
I mean... how many of us look at our conditions and resources and compare with others and decide we don't have enough and give up? How many of us get disheartened by things that go wrong so that we don't take advantage of things that go right? How many of us let the society and our parents tell us that we aren't good enough to take room, get involved, insist - it is only by keeping talking, keeping being visible, keeping acting as if we were a part of the community, when we become part of the community. Not by waiting for the acceptance, respect and invitation.
Emmanuel, BTW, is married and the father of three perfectly formed girls, one of whom he named after his mother :-)