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Wheelchairs to El Salvador

In December of 2021, Wheelchair Foundation worked with Airline Ambassadors International, Kiwanis International, and US Army Southern Command to deliver 100 wheelchairs to the country of El Salvador to assist  The Fund for the Protection of Disabled and Disabled as a Result of the Armed Conflict (FOPROLYD). The content below was written by Airline Ambassadors International and the original can be viewed on their website here.

Many Thanks to the Wheelchair Foundation for providing 100 Wheelchairs as well as canes, walkers, and mobility equipment for Veterans in El Salvador.  The donations were readied for shipment and we appreciate the Denton Program and US Army Southern Command providing transport for this aid to support the government of El Salvador.

Airline Ambassadors is part of the Denton Program where the US Military assists NGOs with humanitarian assistance.  The aid was delivered to El Salvador in November and the first wheelchair distribution took place on Dec.3rd, 2021! Matt Beinke, Luis Urrea, and Dr. Pablo Guzman joined the first delivery to veterans and victims of the civil war in El Salvador within the framework of the National and International Day of the Person with Disabilities. Together with our 25-year local partner, Kiwanis International, we assisted The Fund for the Protection of Disabled and Disabled as a Result of the Armed Conflict (FOPROLYD). The entire program was both conceived and resourced by the Office of the President through his brothers. William Bent, Consul General of the USA, Matt Beinke, and Laura Corpeno of Kiwanis Village made comments.

The donation and ceremony was made at the facilities of Parque Cuscatlán, in San Salvador and featured the AAI partners of The Wheelchair Foundation, Kiwanis El Salvador, and the United States Embassy, ​​all of who support the efforts that institutions such as FOPROLYD do for people with disabilities in El Salvador.  See this short video that tells the story!

“A wheelchair is one of the means of assistance for use to improve personal mobility, a precondition for enjoying human rights and a dignified life, which also helps people with disabilities to become more productive members of their families. communities; for this reason, a wheelchair can constitute the first step towards inclusion and participation in our society ”, stated the Board of Directors of INABVE and honorary president of FOPROLYD, Ing. Ortiz.

According to the U.S. Southern Command’s Denton Program, the total donation received is valued at over $73,000 and includes transportation of various mobility tools such as wheelchairs for adults, walkers, canes, and crutches, which will be delivered this month to beneficiaries who require them for their mobility and whose disability is related to other chronic diseases and injuries sustained from the civil conflict.

FOPROLYD is an autonomous government institution responsible for the care and monitoring of the rehabilitation process, productive reintegration, the timely granting of economic benefits to people who were injured and disabled as a result of the armed conflict that took place in El Salvador; as well as to the relatives of combatants who died in the said conflict, who lost their family protection, through the delivery of the benefits contemplated in the Law of Benefit for the Protection of the Crippled and Disabled as a Result of the Armed Conflict.

AAI has additionally used a warehouse at the Special Operations Command’s Headquarters at Homestead Airbase in Florida to provide the HA (Humanitarian Aid) to troops as they deploy with their Southern Command national partners.  Recipients had tears in their eyes as they received their gifts.

After the delivery, we gave friends from the Wheelchair  Foundation a tour to look at possible development projects including visits to Projects of Gente Ayudando Gente, a helicopter tour of Bitcoin City and the beaches, and visits to Surf City – La Palapa, and even a Coffe Farm.

Thank you for the support from Dave Rivard, Alejandro Fernandez, Luis Urrea, and all who helped to make this possible!

See pictures below of the arrival in San Salvador on a C-130 on November 5th, 2021.

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Chair The Love Delivers Wheelchairs To Bahamas

We received the amazing story and photos below from Glen Mather and our partners from ChairTheLove.org in Florida.

It’s Just a Wheelchair Like Any Other

“The hurricanes last year have turned our Bahamian Islands upside down, and we have a desperate need for wheelchairs”.   We got the e-mail back in November 2020, right in the teeth of Covid-19.  The ability to distribute the wheelchairs with our donors was not possible, but we could feel the desperation in their message.

The note came from the area Rotarians, always willing to help and partner with Chair the Love worldwide to assist us in providing mobility to the neediest.  Unable to ignore their plea, our generous donors, combined with others from the Wheelchair Foundation, pulled together the funds to purchase an entire container of Wheelchairs (280), to be delivered directly from the factory to the Bahamas.

Because large crowds were discouraged by Covid restrictions, the chairs were given out, many just one-by-one, at the homes of the recipients.  Our Rotarian friends provided to Chair the Love a continual stream of photos, each one more touching than the last.

Prince William pushing a boy in a wheelchairOne of the distributions resulted in two chairs winding up at the Grand Bahama Children’s Home in Freeport.  This amazing facility provides for 32 children from infants to 14 whose parents are unable to care for their development or physical needs.  It is there that our donated Wheelchair and the dear young boy sitting in it met the Prince, yes Prince William.

It seems that the Prince, together with Princess Kate were in the Bahamas for a goodwill tour of several Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean.   Evidently, Prince William was as taken as we were at Chair the Love with this young man and his joy.  The story and photos were featured in news features both on Yahoo and Fox News.

It just served to underscore the impact that each one of our donors have to change the lives of others, mostly outside the purview of a Prince and Princess.

These are the same faces we see on every distribution, and due to many of you, we will give thousands more this year the same gift of mobility.

DONATE TODAY

Prince William speaking with a young boy in a wheelchair

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Thank You For Your Support

All of us at Wheelchair Foundation are exceedingly grateful for your continued support throughout this year, which has continued to prove challenging for many people. Due to your continued support in being one of our partners in mobility along with your generous contributions, we were able to complete a number of distributions to different parts of the world including right here in the United States as well as Ecuador, Venezuela, Uganda, and more. With your generosity, we were able to provide nearly 10,000 wheelchairs to individuals in need! Below are just a couple of stories from recipients that we were able to deliver mobility to in 2021.

A few weeks ago Wheelchair Foundation received an e-mail from someone here in the United States saying they had a relative in Venezuela with a six-year-old son named Abraham who has Cerebral Palsy and needed a wheelchair. We contacted Federica, one of our in-country partners in Venezuela, who happened to be receiving our next container of wheelchairs in early December. On December 22, Federica delivered the wheelchair just in time for Christmas providing not only young Abraham (pictured left) with the basic right of mobility with his new wheelchair, but with the gift of hope to move around freely.

We traveled to Ecuador and met Jorge (pictured right), who had lost his right leg from diabetes. He was lucky enough to have adult children to care for him, for which he was so grateful. However, it can be an emotional burden as a parent to have to depend on your children. This man’s two adult children would share the responsibility because they both had children of their own and they had to work to support not just their families, but their father as well. The man did not hold back his tears as we lifted him into his new wheelchair. “Now I do not have to rely on my children for everything.” He said between sobs. The emotional burden was lightened for this man on that day. He was now able to do many things on his own, and his children were free to work to better support their families. ~In the photo, Left: Cody Christman, back: Craig Fryer, right: Heather Schomaker

If you’ve already donated, THANK YOU!! This is a gentle reminder that you have a couple of more chances to make a tax-deductible donation for 2021

Thank you again for your support, it’s been an honor to serve with you.

Sincerely,

Wheelchair Foundation

Make Your 2021 Tax-Deductible Donation Here

P.S. Want to make a 2021 tax-deductible donation via check, but concerned it won’t get to us in time? No worries! Any donations in envelopes postmarked by 12/31 will count as a 2021 tax-deductible donation. Our address is listed at the bottom of this email.

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Honoring The Greatest Generation

We are remembering with great fondness Wheelchair Foundation President, David Behring’s trip-of-a-lifetime, the opportunity to join a group of volunteers and chaperone a Veteran on an Honor Flight to Washington, D. C. to see the memorials built in honor of their service and sacrifice in support of democracy.

~ by David Behring

Over the years the Wheelchair Foundation has furnished wheelchairs to Honor Flight Network chapters throughout the country. This non-profit organization’s mission is to provide all-expense-paid trips for World War II veterans back to Washington, D.C so that they can visit their memorial along with Arlington Cemetery and other memorials related to military service.

Every veteran is assigned a guardian to assist him or her on the trip. Since most of these veterans are at least 90 years old, the wheelchair makes it much easier to both rest and be pushed by the guardian. A “wheelchair brigade” of volunteers would file out first from the bus at each stop and set up the wheelchairs. It ran very efficiently and the veterans greatly appreciated the convenience. It was quite a sight to see our group of 26 veterans in red shirts and jackets in red wheelchairs against the background of the white WWII Memorial.

In September I had the honor and privilege to be a guardian on Bay Area Honor Flight #4 and accompany Frank Carli, a Navy Seabee who spent time at Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima.

As an ardent student of WWII history, I loved meeting and talking to these men and women who helped save the world from tyranny. From the time we left San Francisco very, very early on a Thursday morning to our return on Saturday night, the patriotism and support from people was unbelievable.

Large crowds greeted us at the airports with flags, banners, and cheering. School kids would gather around the veterans and want their pictures taken. A police escort accompanied our bus during the entire trip.

One of the most poignant parts of our Honor Flight was V (for Victory) Mail Night when they received mail from their family members and friends as well as letters of gratitude from strangers such as students, Boy Scouts, and young veterans. One could not help but get emotional watching these veterans carefully read a dozen or so letters of appreciation. Many of the veterans re-read those letters on the flight home.

I am glad that we were able to play a small role in making the trip easier for these courageous and patriotic men and women who served our country so well 70 years ago. As Frank told me at the end of the trip, “I cannot begin to tell you how unbelievable and emotional this trip has been. Being with the guys, hearing the cheers, walking the memorials – the experience was far beyond anything I expected.”

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