Online Reporter
Conrad Mupesa, Features Writer
A firstborn in a family of three, Elisha Gumbo was only 13, and yet to know the hurdles and hassles of life.
His journey appeared to be smooth, with a promising future beckoning.
Like every other couple, Elisha’s parents also hoped for a brighter future.
However, fate decided otherwise.
A genius, born able-bodied and oozing life, his destiny was somehow altered.
Maybe it has always been so, for life to have its own way of unfolding.
Around January 2010, fate confronted the then Grade Seven pupil at Mupamombe Primary School when he was walking home.
There was a storm and several electricity poles in Elisha’s area were uprooted, one of which lay along his path.
He stepped onto a hissing live power line, and all hell broke loose. The young innocent soul suffered an electric shock.
“We were engulfed by the excitement of going home,” Elisha reveals in a recent interview. “I suffered an electric shock.”
The electric shock involuntarily threw the budding school-loving boy a distance away owing to muscle spasms and contractions, knocking him unconscious.
Fortunately, help was quickly rendered, with him having to spend almost 10 months in hospital, battling for dear life.
With doctors having to make a difficult decision to save his life, the gods of medicine appeared to be in a quandary.
To amputate both hands and arms or not, was the question! They settled for amputation.
Walking from hospital in October, the same year, he sat for his Grade Seven examinations, Elisha knew he had to make a decision.
He had to accept his fate. Life had changed!
A genius he was, the determined Elisha passed with flying colours.
“To everyone’s surprise, including my parents, I passed. However, as it dawned on me that I had lost both arms, education became the only option for me to turn my fate around,” he says
The years that followed exemplified how one turns lemons into lemonade.
With his focus forever clear, he did exceptionally well at both Ordinary and Advanced levels, bagging distinctions.
Undeterred by the hand of fate, Elisha enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe where he studied Law, graduating with an Upper Second-Class degree in 2024.
Now 28, the lawyer looks back at his life and marvels at how he conquered the impossible.
He has become a source of inspiration and an advocate against drug and substance abuse.
“I am grateful to my immediate family and close friends who stood by me. Despite my physical disabilities, I triumphed because of them,” Elisha says.
“It is unfortunate that the community saw me as an unworthy person whom they sometimes used to scare their children. I was like an alien but I knew God had a purpose for me.
“I may have lost my arms but I still have my mind and voice.”
As he helps fight the drug and substance abuse scourge, he does so from an informed position.
Although he never tried using any drugs, Elisha was tempted, forced and coerced by fellow college mates, who tried to use his condition to lure him. Knowing the odds stacked against him, he persevered against temptation.
Had he slipped, he would have been a laughing stock. He couldn’t afford that!
“At college, not many genuinely wanted to associate with me. And, those who did, always tempted me to engage in drugs as a way to escape from my ordeal,” he reflects.
“Had I fallen prey to their coercion, I would be here regretting. Although I am physically challenged, I told myself that I would not curse God.”
He knew he wouldn’t be judged by his weaknesses.
Knowing his own limitations, Elisha motivated himself to focus on education and championed anti-drug abuse at the tertiary institution.
Today, he works hand-in-glove with a Kadoma businessman and disability advocate, Mr Jimaya Muduvuri to fight drug and substance abuse in the gold-rich city.
Kadoma, a well-known gold producing city has recorded shocking figures of youth between the ages of 21 to 35 indulging in drug and substance abuse.
Many claim abusing drugs make them focus and face the underground life with confidence, yet Elisha knows otherwise.
“I want to tell young people that their minds are their greatest assets. Therefore, they should protect them,” he advises.
He is confident that his participation in the fight against drug abuse will help win lost souls and complement the Government’s efforts to curb the scourge.
As the fight against drug and substance abuse is intensified, so is his determination for a better life, despite the challenges he might face living with disabilities.
