Adil Khan is getting his orthotic device replaced at PIPOS, Peshawar. ©NEOC/PAK2017/Faran Tanveer10 December 2017 – Nine-year old Adil Khan comes from Peshawar, Pakistan’s sixth largest city and capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He is the oldest of the 4 children of Shami Ullah, a local laborer who often struggles to make ends meet. Together with his wife and 4 children, he lives in Wahid Ghari, a poor area of Peshawar, where many other underprivileged families reside.
If Shami Ullah’s life wasn’t difficult enough already, Adil was diagnosed with polio in 2008, only 5 months after he was born. After a couple of days of high fever followed by weakness in his left leg, Shami Ullah rushed his baby to the hospital where Adil was tested for polio. Unfortunately, the test came back positive. “We had heard about polio before, so when we learnt our son had it, we were very worried,” Shami Ullahsaid. “I just didn’t want to accept that Adil would not be able to walk his entire life.”
