fbpx
DONATE NOW

Posts

,

Australian Rotarians Walk Nearly 1,100 Miles To Provide Wheelchairs for Madagascar

David Rivett, left, and Peter Pearce, of the Rotary Club of Gosford North, NSW, set out on a 1770km walk across the UK to raise funds for Wheelchairs & Desks for Madagascar.

David Rivett, left, and Peter Pearce, of the Rotary Club of Gosford North, NSW, set out on a 1770km walk across the UK to raise funds for Wheelchairs & Desks for Madagascar.

Two “super keen but mad” Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Gosford North, AUSTRALIA, David Rivett and 2014 Gosford City Council Citizen of the Year Peter Pearce, are walking 1770km from the Scottish Highlands to Lands End in the UK to raise funds for Wheelchairs & Desks for Madagascar.

A brand new wheelchair delivered by Rotarians direct to a beneficiary in devastated Madagascar costs $180. A donation of 10 cents per kilometre will pay for one wheelchair. The full price of a desk constructed in Madagascar by Rotarians is $15.

While David will walk part of the route, his main role is to provide support to Peter.

The walk commenced on June 10 at John O’Groats at the top of the Scottish Highlands and will take approximately 79 days to reach Lands End in the far south west of the UK on August 27.

The marathon walk includes The Great Glen Way, which stretches for 117km from coast to coast across the Highlands, linking the main centres of Fort William and Inverness, a 152km walk along the West Highland Way, which transverses the Loch Lomand and Trossachs National Park, and The Pennine Way, a 432km walk from the Peak District National Park along the Pennine ridge through the Yorkshire Dales down to the Scottish Borders.

Peter and David will visit many cities and towns along the route, including Inverness and Edinburgh in Scotland, Worcester, Gloucester and Bath in England, finishing in Cornwall at Lands End.

Contact has been made with District and local Rotary clubs in the UKto gain their support for the marathon walk to raise funds for the Madagascar Project. It is anticipated clubs will meet Peter and David along the way. They plan to do it tough by free camping or staying in van parks at night.

Peter and David will be visiting Madagascar in October 2014 to distribute wheelchairs, and assist the local people of Madagascar construct school desks. It is hoped some Australian Rotary clubs who appreciate the devastating conditions may donate a wheelchair or two.

To follow the big walk you can go to www.facebook/RotaryMadagascarProject

/by
,

Wheelchair Foundation Australia

In June of 2000, philanthropist Ken Behring established the Wheelchair Foundation to deliver wheelchairs to people without mobility worldwide.

Well over 100,000 wheelchairs have been delivered to more than 100 countries, and Rotary Clubs and Districts have become an integral part of this distribution effort.  Since March of 2001, Rotarians have sponsored the delivery of over 50,000 wheelchairs to more than 50 countries.

Children can now go to school, adults can work and provide for their families, and the elderly can once again be a part of society.

The Rotary Club of Gosford West helped to establish Wheelchair Foundation Australia as their international service project, to provide free wheelchairs to disabled people in the Australian and Western Pacific regions.

In February of 2003, Gosford West President Tony Mylan and members Harry Melkonian, Graham Allen, Lyall Hood, Mary Hood, and Donald Sullens traveled to Papua New Guinea for the distribution of 240 wheelchairs that were delivered to Port Moresby by sea container, directly from the factory in China.  Over a 5 day period, the Gosford West Rotarians participated in wheelchair distributions in Port Moresby, Gaire, and Wewak.

From the early years of the 20th century, Papua New Guinea had been administered by Australia up until its independence in 1975.  During World War II, Australians bravely liberated the country from hostile occupation, and in doing so, found great allies in the indigenous people.  Stories told since the 1940’s recant the support and friendship that Australian troops received from the New Guinea people.  It is this same support and friendship that Australian Rotarians have been giving back to the citizens of Papua New Guinea for many years.

David Conn is a member of the Rotary Club of Boroko, PNG and an official of the Friends of the Disabled Association in Port Moresby.  The Boroko club has been very involved for many years in distributing aid to the disabled of Papua New Guinea and served as the Wheelchair Foundation Australia’s Non-governmental organization (NGO), able to import and properly distribute the wheelchairs to the people in need.  The Rotary Club of Boroko is now the Wheelchair Foundation’s official NGO for Papua New Guinea.

The wheelchairs being delivered in 5 sizes are designed to be easily usable and maintainable in developing countries.  This type of folding wheelchair would normally sell for about $600.00 AUD in Australia. But for a donation of only $120.00 AUD, we can deliver a wheelchair to a person in need, because of the matching program available from the international headquarters of the Wheelchair Foundation.  These wheelchairs are delivered by 280-wheelchair containers, directly to our distribution partners in the country of destination.

These tangible, life changing wheelchairs get directly to the people who need them.

As Rotarians, civic leaders and professionals we have the ability to immediately improve the lives of disabled people, and to participate in an international service project that has succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations.

/61 Comments/by