fbpx
DONATE NOW

Wheelchair Foundation videos.

, , ,

East Bay foundation gives the gift of mobility

DANVILLE, CA (KGO) — A wheelchair can mean the difference between being bed-ridden or leading a productive life. But in many parts of the world, cost keeps them out of the hands of people who need them. One East Bay charity is hoping to make a difference two wheels at a time.

On the island of San Pedro in Belize, artist Kurt Jason Cruz was attacked in 2006. It left him completely paralyzed.

“I got stabbed in my lower back and neck and was paralyzed for four months and I couldn’t even move from neck down,” he said.

He has regained some mobility, and can now get around thanks to the Danville-based Wheelchair Foundation. The non-profit has given away hundreds of thousands of wheelchairs over the past decade to people in need all over the world. The idea began with developer Ken Behring. Now his sons have taken up the cause.

“The most important thing is to be able to give personally,” said Jeff Behring.

The Behrings organize trips around the world so donors can hand over the wheelchairs in person.

“I think year after year the people that have gone on our wheelchair missions in the past always want to repeat themselves, so we’re getting a larger and larger number of people who want to go with us and personally participate and put people in wheelchairs and give them the gift of mobility,” said Jeff Behring.

“When you see the smiles and tears — I get very emotional,” said David Behring. “When somebody starts crying out of joy, I usually end up breaking down with the family.”

The Wheelchair Foundation buys specially designed wheelchairs in China for about $150.

“They don’t have the money and the resources,” said David Behring. “Many of these people make less than a thousand dollars a year, and in these countries a wheelchair can cost anywhere from $400 to $700.”

Volunteers say seeing the joy in the eyes of those who get a wheelchair is like no experience they have ever had.

“All of a sudden when you put them in a wheelchair you can feel that, you can feel the change, you feel the desire to live and wanting to be and embracing life and do things and it’s just an amazing thing to experience, but it’s an amazing thing to feel,” said volunteer Glenn Perry.

The Wheelchair Foundation is now trying to raise money for 2,000 wheelchairs to send to the devastated regions of Haiti. Every $75 donation is matched and improves the life of one person.

For more information on how you can help, visit www.wheelchairfoundation.org.

SOURCE: ABC 7 KGO-San Francisco

/0 Comments/by
, , , , ,

Plane to Haiti Mission 1 – Full Documentary

Plane to Haiti Mission 1 – Full Documentary from Dan Catullo on Vimeo.

January 27, 2010- DC3 Global, Partnered with the Wheelchair Foundation- Launched it’s first Haiti Relief mission to bring 25 volunteers & medical professionals plus 10,000 lbs of medical supplies to earthquake ravaged Haiti.

This is the story of what every day people can do when they work together to help save lives and rebuild a country.

Please donate to: www.planetohaiti.org

/1 Comment/by
, , , , ,

Plane-to-Haiti Haiti relief mission Preview

Plane-to-Haiti Haiti relief mission Preview from DC3 Music Group on Vimeo.

On January 13, 2010, DC3 Global and The Wheelchair Foundation (partnered with MedShare) launched an ambitious mission to send a private plane full of medical supplies and doctors to Haiti. Over the following weeks, dozens of everyday people pulled together to accomplish and extraodinary mission that saved lives and brought hope for hundreds of Haitians in the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters of the century.

PLEASE DONATE TO: www.planetohaiti.org

Directed by: Jonathan Fambrough
Produced by: Daniel E Catullo

/0 Comments/by
, , , , ,

Despite recession, locals reach out to Haiti

RICHMOND, CA (KGO) — People all over the Bay Area are doing what they can to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Despite the recession, donations are still pouring in from adults and young people as well.

The Wheelchair Foundation of Danville went beyond its original mission to provide 2,000 wheelchairs for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. It flew in eight tons of medical supplies along with 50 doctors and nurses who gave badly needed surgery to people dying from blood infections caused by blunt trauma.

“We had a couple stay. They didn’t want to come back. You just get so wrapped up and so involved in helping these people and you get so much out of it, you kind of forget about time,” said Jeff Behring with The Wheelchair Foundation.

The foundation is gearing up to deliver another round of supplies and medical aid. The images that Behring witnessed are compelling other groups to go beyond their own means to help.In Richmond, a city that often finds itself in need, people are coming out to give what they can.

Students involved with Richmond’s Police Athletic Club are holding a charity basketball tournament featuring semi-pro teams like the San Francisco Rumble and the Compton Cobras.

“A lot of the kids out here are going through some hard times,” said student organizer Gina Saechao.

Saechao says their own pain is helping fuel the effort to put on this six-day tournament and raise $50,000 for the Red Cross.

“Just because we’re disadvantaged it doesn’t mean that we don’t care,” she said.

“There is yet hope. It’s never too small to dream big,” said basketball charity supporter Richard Foster.

SOURCE: ABC 7 KGO-San Francisco

/0 Comments/by
, , , , ,

Selma Medical Team Share Stories of Haiti

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A medical team from Selma just flew home from Port-au-Prince after volunteering there for the last week. This team is made up of three nurses, one doctor and a former army medic.

They’ve all seen gun shots, stabbings and assaults before but nothing prepared them for what they encountered once they got to their destination.

Inside Dr. Joaquin Arambula’s iPhone are 5 days worth of photos chronicling the mass destruction in Haiti and the affects on its inhabitants. “It’s going to take more than two days, two weeks, two years to fix the structures and issues that they are going to have,” he said.

Sunday afternoon Dr. Arambula and fellow nurses Jennifer Tarazon, Tamara Bryan and Tim Miller met in Northwest Fresno to wind down and reflect on what they saw in Port-au-Prince.

“We had a floor of 75 kids that were either amputations, waiting for amputations, dehydration and they actually had a death from tetanus,” said Tarazon.

Bryan added: “Things are in boxes laying around and the supplies you have to work with are far and few. You have to just rig things together and make your own equipment.”

“There’s no way this country will be anywhere near [where] it was, which it is still behind, in 30 years,” said Thomas Miller a former Army medic.

Miller said there was too much red tape keeping them from doing their jobs effectively. “I think there needs to be a non-government group that in some way creates a liaison that can somehow filter the right people to the right places,” he said.

The few times they were able to venture out they were under constant military guard.

“God bless our troops, those guys. Talk about the professionalism. Everything was amazing. We couldn’t have gone anywhere without them,” said Miller.

This group, which managed to survive off of 8 hours of sleep, said the memories of the children they met will stay with them forever.

“You’re taking care of a child and she’s trying to hug you and she only has one arm and you want to cry but she’s smiling and she’s laughing and she’s just thankful that you’re there,” said Tarazon:

“They need help. They need a lot of help. I would go back in a heart beat. Without even thinking twice about it,” said Bryan.

This group was able to donate 50 wheelchairs to people in need through the Wheelchair Foundation. They want to go back but they have to raise the money first… they say it costs thousands of dollars to ship supplies and themselves into the disaster area.

SOURCE: ABC 30 KFSN-Fresno

/1 Comment/by