Kike Figaredo gives Pope Francis a wheelchair made by disabled people

The Jesuit priest and Apostolic Prefect from Battambang (Cambodia), Fr. Enrique “Kike” Figaredo, has given Pope Francis a wheelchair made by survivors of the mines in Cambodia.

The Spanish missionary traveled to Rome from the Southeast Asian country with a special gift for the Holy Father: a wheelchair Mekongcharacterized by having three wheels and being made of wood.

Father Figaredo, who is in the Eternal City to participate in the Synod of Synodality, had the opportunity to meet with the Pontiff early in the morning of October 23.

“This meeting has been beautiful, Pope Francis has fascinated me. When he saw me, he asked me: ‘Kike, what do you bring me?’” he shared with ACI Prensa.

According to the missionary, the Holy Father “was surprised to see the wheelchair and said it was very pretty.” Later she showed him some of its characteristics “and he listened very attentively,” highlighting that the authors are not “disabled,” but rather have “special abilities.”

“I invited him to sit, he got up from his chair and sat on the Cambodian chair and said: ‘what a beauty’.” He also showed his desire to use it, something that for Father “Kike” would be “a symbol for people wounded in the war.”

He also highlighted that this gesture has great meaning: “May Pope Francis have a wheelchair made by the people for whom he prays and fights, so that they may have peace.”

“The people who are victims of war are the ones who offer it to them through me. They give a wheelchair to the Pope, who is now disabled, so that he can continue to be the leader of the Church and the world for peace,” he added.

Father Figaredo has spent more than 40 years dedicating his life to the service of those most in need in Cambodia, especially people maimed due to anti-personnel mine explosions.

Over the years, he promoted different action projects with the disabled. In 1991 he founded Phnom Penh a school for mutilated children, where they build wheelchairs Mekongalluding to the river that crosses Cambodia and five other Asian countries and is one of the longest in the world.

Here they welcome vulnerable street children, orphans and disabled children. In Battambang there is also the Center clotheswhere different education projects for children and adult training are developed.

They also have an agricultural and livestock extension, the restaurant The Lonely Tree Caféa cafeteria, a hotel, a textile center where they make Kromas – the traditional Cambodian scarf – and with the brand Mutitaawhere they sell clothing that can be purchased online from Spain. All of these are, according to the Spanish bishop, “small models of social integration.”

Volunteers from different countries come to the mission every year. Many arrive to help during the summer and the adults usually stay longer, about a year. Then, there are others who only come for a few months and finally end up staying, because these people have something that “gets you”.