Hoop Dreams: Wheelchair Basketball Is Changing Lives In Afghanistan
The head of the Red Cross orthopedic program wasn't sure a basketball team was a good idea. The players proved him wrong.
When he was 10, a war injury put him in a wheelchair. His spine was permanently damaged. He was so depressed there were days he refused to get out of bed.
Now Mohammadullah Amiri can't wait to get up in the morning.
It's all because of wheelchair basketball. Since the 36-year-old from Afghanistan discovered it, he has become a changed man, says Jess Markt, his coach.
"He has this full life. All that has come since he played basketball," says Markt, an American who trains wheelchair basketball teams for the International Committee of the Red Cross in countries like Afghanistan, South Sudan and India. Like Amiri, he has paraplegia.
Since 2011, Markt has been working
