Ghanaian female IT engineer with brain illness gains the recognition of the BBC

Ghanaian software engineer, Farida Bedwei, has gained the recognition of the BBC for amazing strides in her field in spite of the fact that she has cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is an illness whereby the sufferer's muscles and bodily functions are not in optimum coordination. It is the result of the sufferer's brain's inability to control the nervous system well.

But it would seem that even that would not stop Bedwwi. On Wednesday October 31, BBC Africa noted that they were doing a One Minute Story special on the software engineer.

Bedwei shared the story behind her creation of a comic character with the BBC. The character is known as Karmzah and just like Bedwei, has cerebral palsy too.

Bedwei said she grew up loving superheroes and their stories. However she noticed there were never any superheroes with her condition of cerebral palsy.

She therefore took upon herself to create one. But to make things imaginative, her character Karmzah, gets her own powers from her crutches that she has to uses in the story.

Bedwei noted that she hoped her creation will improve social attitudes towards people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

She explains: "If you have a crutch or a wheelchair that can fly, it will make people and children want to use their assistive devices."

Bedwei has long been an advocate of the rights of the disabled. She has used various platforms in the media to bring awareness to her cause.