We need your donations to send 2,000 wheelchairs to Haiti right now. All $75 donations towards Haiti will be MATCHED by the Wheelchair Foundation until enough funds are acquired for 2,000 wheelchairs. A donation of $75 covers half the cost of one wheelchair, which is valued at $150. With your donations and our Haiti matching program, we can make a difference together. Wheelchair Foundation is currently sending 560 wheelchairs to partnering aid organizations on the ground in March. The request for wheelchairs has been steady, and rescue efforts and triage of the wounded are revealing a huge need for assistance for those injured in the Haitian Earthquake of January 12th, 2010.
The challenges faced by first responder aid organizations and military have been daunting. Due to the lack of infrastructure and simple supplies, treating the wounded has been make-shift at best. Lack of trained medical personnel, sterile operating environments and sanitary conditions are resulting in frequent amputation of damaged limbs in victims of the quake who can no longer wait for specialized services to treat their wounds.
Wheelchair Foundation seeks to provide mobility to those wounded as a result of this great catastrophe. We are working to supply our NGO partners with the wheelchairs they need to serve the wounded they are dealing with now, and those they will be dealing with as this tragedy continues to unfold in the months to come.
Supporters of Wheelchair Foundation know about our long history of responding when the world is in need. Whether providing wheelchairs to Indonesia and Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004, or directly assisting the earthquake victims of Pakistan in 2005, providing more than 3,000 wheelchairs to those wounded and displaced by hurricane Katrina that same year, or assisting with several thousand wheelchairs for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake disaster in China in 2008.
Haiti needs your support now. Please donate generously.
The lack of medical supplies on the ground, mainly antibiotics and antiseptics, is forcing doctors who care for earthquake victims in Haiti to practice hundreds of amputations that would otherwise be necessary, said in a statement Monday Medical world.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Jacques C. surgeon of the French team of the NGO. “Unfortunately, we are having to make numerous amputations every day,” he lamented, noting that “in the coming days we will have to calculate the order of 400”. These operations are due to the serious injury during the earthquake and the inability to treat infections.