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Your Support Brings Us Closer to One Million!

Isabella

The Wheelchair Foundation is proud to announce a milestone achievement towards our goal of providing at least one million wheelchairs to adults, teens, and children around the world.

The 850,000th wheelchair recipient received her life-changing gift on March 16th, 2011 at our recent distribution in Costa Rica. Joining us on our mission were Rotarians from Rotary Club Districts 5220 and 5230, who graciously contributed their time and money to help make this landmark number a reality.

Our lucky recipient was an adorable four-year-old girl named Isabella. Isabella was born with myelomeningocele, a birth defect of the backbone and spinal canal. She and her twin brother have been living in foster care for three years with their adoptive mother, Charlotte. Charlotte is determined to adopt Isabella’s nine other siblings, all living in foster care, so the family can stay together.

Isabella

Isabella, a bright, energetic girl, had been living without mobility and was dependent on her mother for almost every need. Like most children her age, she longed for the ability to play and move about on her own. Isabella’s dream came true as she was placed in her brand-new, shining red wheelchair. She immediately began moving around at the Rehab Center, wanting everyone to watch what she was able to do.

Bob Bitter of Madera Sunrise Rotary Club and Past District Governor of District 5220 describes the experience, saying, "To us, the most memorable moment of a wheelchair distribution is the hands-on ability to immediately change a person’s life for the better, and to experience the joy they feel with their newfound mobility.

We have helped people move themselves for the very first time, and witnessed the weight being lifted from their family members who were, until now, responsible for that person’s mobility."

Another Rotarian also commented that despite the fact that Costa Rica has one of the highest standards of living in Latin America, there is still a great need for wheelchairs. This need, however, is not exclusive to Costa Rica. There are thousands of children, just like Isabella, in countries around the world who are still awaiting the freedom and dignity a wheelchair can bring. Make a donation today and give a life-changing gift to a man, woman, or child desperate for mobility.

Visit our Facebook page to view videos of Isabella and more photos from Costa Rica!

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Our Continuing Efforts to Help Haiti

A young girl recovers in a wheelchair from the Wheelchair Foundation.

January 20th of 2011 marked the one year anniversary of Wheelchair Foundation’s Plane to Haiti relief flight. The opportunity to join among the world’s first responders to the catastrophic Haitian Earthquake, and to be granted permission to land our two plane loads of medical aid, doctors and nurses, is a testament to the work of Global Health and Education Foundation and all of its’ assets. As quickly as Haiti’s tragedy came to the public eye it soon faded, as other world news took precedence.

Just this week, a little over a year and two weeks following the earthquake, we received word from our partners that nearly all 2,600 wheelchairs we have sent to the people of Haiti have been spread across that country. With the help of CARITAS, the HHS Foundation of the Dominican Republic, Rotarians, The Carlos Slim Foundation and
CODETEL, our wheelchairs have reached Port au Prince, Cayes, Jacmel, Cap-Haitien, Fort Liberte, Jermine, Hinche, Port de Paix, Anse a Veau et Miragoane, and Gonaives.

Our efforts to assist the disabled in Haiti will continue, with 800 wheelchairs sponsored by Rotarians staged in Miami, Florida, awaiting transport to Haiti. We will continue to help, as long as there is a need.

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A LOOK BACK – East Bay Foundation Gives the Gift of Mobility

KGO-TV/DT – Written and produced by Ken Miguel, March 15, 2010.

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.

Read the Full Article on abc7news.com >>

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Chilean Rotarians Find Road to Purpose

When Chilean Rotarians Brigitte Kusch and her husband, Luciano, had the chance to meet Wheelchair Foundation founder, Kenneth E. Behring, at the Rotary International convention in Los Angles in June of 2008, they were thrilled to have the opportunity to purchase copies of his book Road to Purpose.  In fact, they had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Behring briefly, and have him sign and personalize their copies as well.

Both Brigitte and Luciano felt moved by Mr. Behring’s message of hope, and the personal trials he faced as he sought out the answer to the question of what his “true purpose in life” might be? Road to Purpose afforded them a glimpse into the life that would eventually lead Wheelchair Foundation and Rotary International together in support of helping men, women and children around the world who lack mobility. And both would have an opportunity to personally participate in wheelchair distribution, and witness the miracle of granting others mobility, and see the impact of their own work on wheelchair recipients and their families.

Their experiences with wheelchair distribution allowed them to better understand the significance of their role in caring for their Chilean brothers and sisters, and their fellow man, and brought greater meaning to the work they had already been doing with Rotary. It helped them better see the “purpose” of their efforts.

Flash forward to 2010, when Brigitte and Luciano would return home to Chile, after traveling abroad, to find their home burned to the ground.  An unfortunate mishap lead to a raging fire that consumed nearly everything they owned.  They arrived on site and were told that everything had been destroyed and that a lifetime’s worth of personal belongings were gone.  Still in a state of shock, together they searched through the still smoldering rubble of what was once their home, looking for some significant artifact or relic which they could keep.  Among the charred rubble, lay two slightly burned copies of Road to Purpose.  It caused them to pause and reflect on all of those individuals who had nothing who they were able to help, and realize that all had not been lost.  They both still had their lives, their health and each other.  And beyond any material loss, they had been lucky enough to have gained sense of their purpose here on earth.

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The Gift of Mobility, Power & Independence

The Wheelchair Foundation recently received a touching letter from the fourth-grade school teacher of a young wheelchair recipient named Gabriella. We would like to share this letter, and the joy that it brings, with you as it provides a wonderful example of how together, we are making a difference. Thank you for supporting the Wheelchair Foundation in our efforts to improve the lives of children, like Gabriella, around the world. The letter:

I wanted you to know…

A change has come over Gabriella! She is much more independent, smiles more, and is talking more, and that last one is a miracle. She is writing more, and has more friends now, and well… that wheelchair has just made her feel more powerful and independent, and mobile, and capable. She loves being able to come to school on her own power and her mother is not pushing her in a baby stroller anymore. Her arms are getting stronger, and SHE is deciding when to walk, when to use the wheelchair, and when to use it like a walker. SHE gets around and does not have to wait for someone to push her.

Thank you so much for your gift that has affected us all in many very positive ways!

Denise Aiani
Justin Elementary School
Simi Valley, CA

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Redchair Day at the Expo

“Seeing the Expo from 1-Meter High” Launching Ceremony in China

May 16th is Helping Disabled People Day in China, and it marked the launch of Redchair’s “Seeing the Expo from 1-meter high” Expo program in Jing’an Park.

Redchair’s “Seeing the Expo from 1-meter high” program was launched by the Wheelchair Foundation in 2009, and since then a number of enterprises have participated in the love relay. During the World Expo, Tyco Electronics led the way towards realizing the disabled’s dreams of visiting the Expo by donating 450 Redchairs as well as encouraging employees to volunteer to accompany the disabled on visits to the Expo.

Guests invited to the ceremony included the Deputy Director of the Expo Volunteers Department and Party Secretary of the Communist Youth League Shanghai, Ms. Pan Min; the Deputy Secretary-general of Shanghai Volunteers Association, Mr. Chen Zhenmin; the Vice President of Tyco Electronics, Mr. Gordon Hwang; Executive Chairman of the Wheelchair Foundation, Mr. Steve Beinke; the President of Amcham Shanghai, Ms. Brenda Foster; representatives from Touch Media, Jing’an District; disabled persons and about 100 Tyco Electronics employee volunteers. The ceremony was hosted by Redchair program spokesman, Jin Jing, and Shanghai’s famous TV host, Shi Yan.

When the red silk covering the baton gradually opened, Ms. Pan Min, granted the first baton to a representative of Tyco Electronics. Accompanied by the volunteers, fifty elderly and disabled people sitting on wheelchairs set out to the Expo Park by bus or the subway’s Line 7.

With support from subway volunteers and Expo volunteers, 100 Tyco Electronics volunteers accompanied the elderly and disabled for about 10 hours. Together, using public transportation and wheelchair accessible facilities to visit Expo pavilions. The program participants and volunteers had a great time socializing, eating lunch, and seeing the fascinating sites and pavilions at the Expo.

When visiting the Life and Sunshine Pavilion, one of our special guests, Ji Miwa agreed to an interview by CCTV, ”I’m happy to visit this pavilion, a high-technology lifestyle can improve our disabled people’s quality of life, and with this we can better integrate into the society.”

Both the participants and volunteers enjoyed themselves, and the Wheelchair Foundation looks forward to more community groups joining the Redchair Program to allow more disabled people to enjoy the thrill of “seeing the Expo from 1-meter high

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