A Visit from Pyunic

We had told you about a visit from our friends at Fundación Vista para Todos last week, but they weren’t the only ones to stop by our offices. Another group from our distribution partners in Armenia, Pyunic, came by the offices to say hello and give us some feedback on how Free Wheelchair Mission’s wheelchairs were working back in Europe.

Pyunic and Free Wheelchair Mission officially partnered in 2010 and since then they have distributed 550 of our GEN_2 model wheelchairs to Armenians in need. Although the need for mobility spans all age groups in Armenia, Pyunic focuses especially on the elderly for the whom the need is most pressing. We were grateful that not only were they willing to come meet us here to talk about our chairs, but especially for the quality feedback on our GEN_2 wheelchair. Probably the most interesting observation they made was on the color of the chair. Most people know us by our GEN_1 wheelchair which looks like a white plastic chair with bike tires. Our GEN_2 wheelchair (seen here) looks quite different: besides not looking like a white plastic chair, it’s also blue. Pyunic informed us that not only does the color make our wheelchairs stand out among the crowd, but that the blue color also seems to help bring a sense of calm to the recipients. It was the first time we had gotten that kind of feedback and definitely neat to hear.

Thanks so much for Pyunic for playing an integral role in bringing the gift of mobility to Armenians who need it, and to everyone who supports Free Wheelchair Mission!

When a Plan Comes Together…

Good morning and happy Monday! Here is your recap of the Friday Story from last week!

Greetings and happy Friday!

Although some of my favorite stories to share with you are about wheelchair recipients, today I wanted to highlight one of the unsung heroes of the distribution process: our distribution partners. Just this week I received a letter from Henry S, one of our newest distribution partners, who works in Morocco:

I have been working on the wheelchair project with local organizations and the Moroccan Red Crescent. While I wanted to give you a flavor of the nature of doing business in the developing world, I’m going to fast track through the process…Suffice it to say, unexpected things happen often—and on the docks of Casablanca, one must be ready to roll with the punches…

Mustafa delivered the container to Taroudant on Thursday without incident and a team of six laborers unloaded the contents of the container into the storage facility. The container, including 1,204 boxes, weighs over 11,600 kilos…prior to opening the container, my mind had not registered the fact that 550 wheelchairs is a LOT! On Sunday I went to the facility to put together my first wheelchair. FWM provides both a graphic assembly manual and online video on safe and proper assembly—they do a good job with this, since I was able to do it correctly the very first time! This week we will…further plan the distribution of the wheelchairs. Thanks for your patience – but even more so for your support!

The joy on our recipients’ faces when they receive a wheelchair is unparalleled, but it’s always sweeter knowing that everyone who pitches in along the way is as excited about giving mobility as the people receiving it. I hope that this story has made your Friday brighter—it certainly has mine. Thank you so much for being a part of our mission!

Blessings,

Don Schoendorfer

A Very Special Guest from Ecuador!

This week we were honored with a visit from a very special guest–and a very dear friend of Free Wheelchair Mission’s.

Diego Nieto is the executive director of our distribution partner in Ecuador, Fundación Vista Para Todos. Located in Quito, la Fundación has served over 7,000,000 people throughout Ecuador providing all manner of medical care to the people who need it most. He is completely in love with FWM and has been since he found out about us in 2005.

To date the Fundación has received six containers since it became our distribution partner in 2006. Diego has said that he will be our partner for as long as we want to partner with him because he believes that Ecuador badly needs these wheelchairs–and we love having him on our team.

Diego flew all the way here to visit with us, talk about how he sees our wheelchairs working in the field and to present Don with a plaque that symbolizes our ongoing partnership with Fundación to serve impoverished disabled people in Ecuador–and around the world. Thank you so much, Diego, and the Fundación for your continued support of Free Wheelchair Mission: we can’t do anything without partners like you.

Where We’re at this Week!

Tons of wheelchairs got delivered this week, check out where!

We’d like to extend a special thanks to our distribution partners in these countries:

The Malawi Project

Sathyam Ministries

Convoy of Hope

Zambia Mission

Fund Ayuda

THANK YOU ALL!

Giving Hearts + A Love of Surfing = Mobility

Our Pastor of Church Development got a letter last week from some of our ambassadors who decided to combine two things they love: surfing and giving. We love seeing all the different ways people come up with to help others get mobility so it’s exciting to share this with you today. Thanks so much, Chris and friends, for your dedication to Free Wheelchair Mission!

Mike –

Just thought I’d let you know we had a great day on Tuesday distributing the wheelchairs.  What a blessing it was to be a part of such a monumental event in people’s lives –it was very powerful.  The partner down here was great to work with and we added to our team with the host of the resort we were staying with and another guest.   

A few things that really stood out [to me] were the obvious impact it will have on the recipients themselves; the even larger emotional need of love that I saw in the recipients through basic human interface and the need to just be “touched” – we had one 84-year-old gentleman who, when asked if there was anything else that he’d like, his answer was, “just a hug from one of those two guys;” and I personally was very aware of what a life changing impact that God’s gift of a wheelchair will have on the caretakers of the recipients: it just floored me to catch a glance of them standing in the back of the room being very appreciative for the chair, but also recognizing that their life would radically different as well…

To you and all your team there, we thank you for all your hard work you put in to assist in making this happen, it was incredible blessing not only to the recipients and their families, but all our team as well.   

God is incredibly good.   

PS- we’re getting some great surf too

Chris B.

Team H.O.T. Wheels Runs for Mobility!

While many people were getting ready to see the ponies in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, the week before there was a dedicated group of physical therapists getting ready to run for mobility in the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon. Georgetown, KY’s “Hands on Therapy” office partnered with Free Wheelchair Mission’s Team Mobility and made their miles matter.

Captain Lea Morgan and 21 other runners all participated in the event as Team H.O.T. Wheels—they were hard to miss in their screaming-green jerseys! But they had an even greater impact than just drawing attention to some shirts—through their efforts more than $10,000 was raised for Free Wheelchair Mission: more than 156 people were lifted off of the ground! We just wanted to take a minute and highlight their efforts, as well as say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who ran in the event: you guys rock!

If you’re interested in partnering with Team H.O.T. Wheels in the future, you can check out their fundraising page here.

Big Dreams, Bigger Hearts

May 4, 2012

Greetings and happy Friday Monday!

Today it’s my pleasure to bring you a story from our distribution partner, World Vision. I want to thank World Vision and Collins Kuamba for bringing this story to us all the way from Zambia.

Eugene, 15, has suffered for a long time now. For all these years, he has been struggling to walk. His childhood has been almost more sadness than happiness—because of his disability his father rejected him after his birth. His uncle, Michael, now takes care of him. They live with 11 children; only four are Michael’s, the rest are orphans.

“I never thought of ever having a wheelchair for Eugene before because I knew I could not afford it. Having such a gift means more than what some can expect in their lifetime…Now that he has got a wheelchair, I will enroll him again in school so that he can start learning again—he had to stop because we could not carry him every day. I know he will do well and have a bright future,” says Michael.

Eugene is excited that he will start school again with his wheelchair—his smile is bigger than ever. He is already dreaming big; “I want to be a police officer when I finish school,” says Eugene, “so that I can deal with criminals.”

Big dreams, bigger hearts. Eugene’s story is heart-wrenching at first, but brighter and brighter everyday because people like you are willing to make a difference. Thank you so much for continuing to make stories like Eugene’s possible.

Blessings,

Don Schoendorfer