The Sole of Africa

Maria arrived home safely and was welcomed back into her community by the city council and a group of singers from her church congregation. Although she missed her children during her stay here they can be very proud as are we of their mom. Maria not only worked very hard at her physiotherapy but visited and supported a young paraplegic; David Mahlala daily. She encouraged him to keep hope and to keep trying to improve on his daily therapy. She is an inspiration to all who know her.





Maria with David 17 November

Maria's smile lit up the airport lounge! Going home to her beloved children, family and friends!



Maria at the airport heading for Vilanculos 17 November

Story and photo's courtesy of Christo Schutte: Director - Landmine Victim Assistance, Mineseeker SA

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Maria's spirit carried her through the difficult task of adjusting physically and mentally to her new limbs. Her courage and determination inspire us to remember to never take anything for granted. It is a sad but joyful time for us. Sad because Maria has left us to go back to her hometown, Vilanculos, Mozambique! During her time at the Arwyp Medical Centre Maria became like a family member to members of her team and is missed already by those who have had the privilege to have spent time with her. Her entire team of medical staff wish her well as she begins her life anew with the simple pleasure of being able to walk. Something we take for granted but remember walking is something her little daughter has never seen her do!



Maria and Christo 17th November

Story and photo's courtesy of Christo Schutte: Director - Landmine Victim Assistance, Mineseeker SA

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Maria is a single parent of two children. Since she cannot move far from her home, she supplements her income by acting as a day mother, and takes care of her neighbours' children while their parents are at work or visiting relatives in the countryside.




Maria's new hair salon was officially handed over to her at a ceremony at the beginning of August 2005, during which donations of hair products, clothing, and toys were presented. Maria also received a wheelchair, cooking pots, and blankets. Even though the wheelchair cannot be used beyond the immediate environs of her house, because of the sandy terrain, it has given her a new­found mobility which has added immeasurably to the quality of her life. The radiant smile of joy and gratitude on her face will long be remembered by those who witnessed it. Her happiness, reflected in the faces of all who had the good fortune to share her joy and understand its significance, bears eloquent testimony to the strength, fortitude, and generosity of the human spirit.





To show her appreciation, Maria reciprocated with an age-old Shangaan tradition. As a token of her gratitude, she gave two of her most valued possessions - a white goat (a token of serenity) and a chicken (a tenth of her wealth) - to the people who helped her. She prepared the meat herself, as is the custom, and, together with her donors, enjoyed a fine celebration in true Shangaan style.

While driving through the beautiful, seemingly boundless African countryside, a place of ancient baobab trees and cerulean sky, on the way to the peaceful coastal village of Vilanculos, it is hard to imagine that only a few years ago a young woman named Maria was lying in a lonely field, grievously injured by an indiscriminate landmine. It is worth remembering that the town of Vilanculos and its outskirts is still a mine-infested area, cruelly burdened with the subterranean menace of undiscovered landmines. The town waits for a sustained and effective de-mining operation which will prevent innocent people from losing a limb or losing their lives while they plough their lands and cultivate their crops. In the brutal lottery of war and its aftermath, it is only a matter of time and chance before the next landmine maims, or kills, another human being.

Visitors to Maria's new hair salon will find a serene and optimistic Maria, a young woman of great dignity and courage, at ease in her surroundings and determined to live her life to the full.

Maria Zefanias Gulele is no longer a statistic. She is a symbol of hope for landmine victims all over the world.

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Maria, a victim of a landmine, worked in front of her house in the sand, where she sat on a small chair with her clients in front of her on a grass mat. Her customers sat for hours in summer temperatures of between 35- 45 °C (sand temperature of 40-50 °C) to have their hair braided and styled. During the torrential rainy season, Maria could not attend to her customers in her open-air salon. Without customers, she had no income.

In 2005 the leader of a South African project assisting landmine victims with prosthetic limbs and humanitarian aid enquired about landmine victims who could not reach the rehabilitation centre in Vilanculos. He was told about Maria and decided to visit her. After travelling along the rough, sandy roads which are typical of the area, he found her sitting outside her hut, busy braiding a client’s hair. After seeing the conditions in which she worked, and having witnessed her irrepressible energy, he decided to build her a truly African hair salon: a spacious oval structure with cement floor, pole-framed walls, and thatched roof. Maria and her clients were now more comfortable -- shaded from the harsh African sun in the extreme summer heat and sheltered from the rain.

Since then, Maria’s business has expanded; her income has increased; she has started to teach others the art and craft of hairdressing; and she is now in a position to employ the students she has trained.

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John Paul DeJoria (JP) CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems and patron of The Sole of Africa, has led the way by donating funds to Maria to give her new prosthetic legs. JP traveled to Mozambique earlier this year with the Sole of Africa team to see first hand the plight of people affected by landmines. It was during this trip that Christo Schutte of Mineseeker SA introduced him to Maria.

JP was so taken by Maria's positive attitude and her resolution to running her own hair salon, that he personally committed to helping Maria with getting prosthetic legs on behalf of Paul Mitchell Systems.

In a moving moment on the beach, Maria presented JP with a wireframe model of a landmine victim.

Maria is currently in Pretoria, South Africa where she is at the Arwyp Medical Centre receiving treatment.




This was all made possible through the funding and support of JP de Joria, Paul Mitchell Systems, Dr Linda Steyn(Physiotherapist), Trevor Brauckmann of Brauckmann Inc, AMA (PTY) Ltd and the Rotary Club of Pretoria East..

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News today is that Maria arrived in South Africa on Wednesday the 18th of October 2006. She will receive specialised rehabilitation and artificial limbs. We are all hopeful that Maria will be able to walk again after she lost both her legs through an indiscriminate weapon, a landmine, almost 15 years ago.



Maria at the Arwyp Medical Centre.

Dr Stander Medical Superintendent at Arwyp


The duration of Maria's initial treatment at the Arwyp Medical Centre will be approximately 3 -4 weeks.

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After Mozambique became independent from Portugal in 1975, a brutal civil war between the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) and the rebel forces of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) broke out. Women and children were kidnapped by rebel soldiers and forced to move with their captors. Children as young as twelve had to carry weapons and food while walking in front of the rebel soldiers during patrols, and were used as human shields and living landmine detonators. Maria Zefania Gulele, now aged 37, was one such young girl. She was captured in Vilanculos, a small coastal village in the Inhambane province, 720 km north of the capital Maputo.

During a reconnaissance patrol, Maria stepped on a landmine and was gravely injured. Her captors left her bleeding and mutilated in the field where she fell. Fortunately, Frelimo soldiers found her when they investigated the cause of the explosion. They took her to the ramshackle hospital in Inhambane, where both her legs were amputated above the knee. Maria Gulele: another landmine statistic, another innocent casualty of a futile ideological war. During her rehabilitation Maria proved to be a courageous survivor who was determined to fight for her independence. Although forced to use her hands to drag herself through the blisteringly hot sand, she refused to give up, and managed to teach herself the art of braiding and hairdressing. When she returned to her hometown of Vilanculos, she borrowed ten dollars to buy the basic equipment she needed to start her own business as a hairdresser.

keep checking back to find out more about Maria...

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