Delivery To Brazil Features Queen of Spain

Queen Sofia of Spain joined Brazilian First Lady Ruth Correa Leite and Wheelchair Foundation’s founder and primary benefactor Kenneth E. Behring this week in a ceremony presenting new wheelchairs to 40 of Brazil’s neediest citizens. This was the first in a series of future wheelchair deliveries to the people of Brazil by the Wheelchair Foundation, a new U.S.-based nonprofit organization that provides new wheelchairs to people around the world who cannot afford them.
The Spanish Embassy in the capital city of Brasilia hosted the ceremony, where disabled Brazilians and their families received their wheelchairs personally from Queen Sofia and Mrs. Correa Leite.

“The gift of a wheelchair will make such a difference in their lives,” said Kenneth E. Behring, “They will no longer have to rely completely on their families and communities to move around. For them, a wheelchair represents independence, mobility, and hope.”

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are co-chairmen of the International Board of Advisors for Wheelchair Foundation. Other prominent board members include former President of France Valery Giscard d’Estaing, First Lady of Guatemala Evelyn de Portillo, U.S. Senator Bill Frist (R-TN), Congressman Steve Largent (R-OK), and University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl.

Wheelchair Foundation was launched in June 2000, and has to date delivered more than 1,000 wheelchairs to people in Vietnam, Romania, Botswana, Guatemala, and the United States. The organization is in the process of filling orders for more than 10,000 wheelchair requests from countries around the world, including Ukraine, Cambodia and Nigeria. In addition, Wheelchair Foundation supplies chairs in the U.S. through a partnership with the Salvation Army. The Foundation’s goal is to provide one million wheelchairs to people in need worldwide over the next five years.