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The Wheelchair Foundation has recently completed a 500-wheelchair distribution in Beirut, Tripoli and Southern Lebanon.

A team comprised of Wheelchair Foundation staff and volunteers from Airline Ambassadors, The Holy Land Foundation and private citizens distributed, these much needed wheelchairs to children, teens and adults over several days. One of the sponsors of the mission, Dr. Joseph Zeiter, also participated in the mission.

Television star Loretta Swit accompanied the team and participated in this humanitarian effort. Ms. Swit has dedicated much of her time to helping others, and contributed greatly to this mission. The Wheelchair Foundation is very grateful for her support and friendship.

Of particular interest was a visit to the Palastinian refugee camps in South Lebanon. One recipient was a 23-year-old woman who lived on a bare matteress in a small, bare room. Upon receiving a wheelchair, her mother burst into tears of joy and told the team that until now her daughter could only stare at the ceiling all day, now “she will be able to sit up and view the world outside of the door.”

The Wheelchair Foundation will be returning to Lebanon later this year, and continuing our efforts to help the disabled residents of communities throughout the world.

The Wheelchair Foundation team is currently distributing wheelchairs in Luanda, Angola with Liwini, a humanitarian relief organization formed by Angolan First Lady Ana Paula dos Santos.
Angola is a country that has suffered greatly from devastating civil wars and political unrest in recent years. The population of 12 million people is considered the most disabled in the world with an estimated 20% of the population, or 1.2 million children, teens and adults that have suffered the effects of land mines and other war related injuries. These injuries include polio, which spreads quickly when vaccines are not available due to war.

The Wheelchair Foundation is proud to have Chevron as a sponsor of this 240 wheelchair delivery. Chevron’s long standing relationship with the government of Angola and a commitment to helping the communities in which they have a base of operation, have provided us with the ability to make this delivery happen. The logistical challenges that make a mission of this type difficult have been solved by the dedicated efforts of the Chevron employees in Luanda.

Chevron and the Wheelchair Foundation are taking the first steps toward helping the disabled people of Angola move themselves to a more productive and fulfilling life. Giving 240 people the gifts of hope, mobility and freedom is just the start.

The Wheelchair Foundation has sent a team to distribute wheelchairs in Lagos, Nigeria with the Healthcare Organization for Africa.

The 240 wheelchairs distributed will mean a new life for people that live in a country plagued by disability. For too many years the relief organizations around the world have tried to get long lasting relief to the poor of Nigeria, only to have the relief supplies not reach those most in need.

The Wheelchair Foundation is working with the First Lady of Nigeria to deliver hope, mobility and freedom to children, teens and adults that could go to school, work or worship, if only for the means to get there.

It is our hope that we can make a difference in the lives of people that can now help others as well as themselves to become productive for their families. Very often the only thing standing between a person that is willing to work and a good job, is a wheelchair.

In a joint effort between the Association of Mobility Providers and the Wheelchair Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities has financed the delivery of 206 specialized wheelchairs to children in Nepal. The majority of the children are victims of Cerebral Palsy, and require specialized wheelchairs.  Daily photographic updates of the delivery mission to Nepal will be posted on the Association of Mobility Providers website.

The Association of Mobility Providers sent an assesment team to Nepal last year to identify the children in need. The Wheelchair Foundation was then approcached for financing of the mission. Ronald McDonald House Charities supplied the funding to the Wheelchair Foundation.

This is a fine example of 3 international organizations working together to save the children of the world.

The Wheelchair Foundation today delivered a planeload of hope, help and independence in Sarajevo, bringing 270 wheelchairs to this rebuilding city. The wheelchairs were primarily given to victims of the mid 1990s civil war at Sarajevo’s Zetra Sports Complex, with the help of General Joseph Ralston, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander in Chief-European Command.