People who are physically challenged have been encouraged to believe that they can still achieve what they want with determination. Young Ghanaian woman, Farida Bedwei, who is suffering from cerebral palsy gave the advice. Cerebral palsy refers to a family of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement, posture and muscle coordination. Because of the condition Farida was home until she turned 12 when she entered mainstream school for the first time. She has however overcome the odds and excelled academically and has risen to become one of the top software engineers in the country. Speaking on Joy FM’s religious programme A Walk with Jesus, Farida said she has never allowed her disability to limit her ability. “All my life I’ve been told by my mom to remove the word ‘I can’t’ from my vocabulary and replace it with ‘I’ll try’ and so whatever I’ve done my entire life, I’ve tried and by the grace of God everything that I’ve tried, I’ve been successful at,” she said. Farida, who will be launching a book about her experiences - Definition of a Miracle - next month said she was provoked to write the book by two things. The first she narrated was that she went to the bank once, and a gentleman selling religious books walked up to her driver – who was holding her – and told him to bring her to his church for healing. “At that point in time, something [struck me] and I said enough is enough, I am going to write a book and [express] all my feelings about these issues.” The second thing that influenced her decision to write the book, Farida stated, was that “most books about Africa are written by people who are not Africans and they give a wrong perception of this part of the world.” She livened the discussion, saying she probably would have become a fashion designer or a hip-life artiste if she had not become a software engineer. Source: Joy News/Ghana