By rebecca trujillo | directora
When you can’t get wheel chairs make bath chairs. These past two weeks Familias Especiales had visitors from the US volunteers who help us collect wheel chair and mobility aids in the USA. They worked in different areas of Familias Especiales but focused their work on the wheel chair project. They specifically were training our workers to build bath chairs and Standers (an aid for children with weak legs and posture problems.)
It was a very productive two weeks, because we also visited with a University Rector in the Capitol, and are about to sign an alliance with them to be able to get some wheel chairs through a container. The alliance is a way to work with the university to do social work projects and to bring about an awareness of the students at the university of people with a disAbility. There are many different works that we could do in the future. So this alliance could be very important to our organization but especially to the wheel chair workshop. There are many different ways that young people can learn about the needs and abilities of a person with a disAbility but what better way than working directly with people with a disAbility on our staff to build mobility aides for others. The bath chairs and standers are going to be distributed in the neighborhoods of Matagalpa to aid parents with children with a disAbility to give therapy to their children at home. This is always a priority of Familias Especiales, the involvement of parents in their children’s lives. At the same time the brigade helped staff to collect unused equipment that families may have had laying around in their homes that their children outgrew. This can be refurbished and used by other children. This is the purpose of our wheel chair workshop to refurbish and help maintain wheel chairs and other mobility aides. It is not an easy task to get people to let go of old equipment but it is a noble cause and most in the end realize that others also need these opportunities for independence. The problem for Nicaraguans is that there are no factories in Nicaragua that manufacture wheel chairs. All wheel chair whether standard or specialized are imported. There are different projects which groups have had to bring in wheel chairs but they are always standard wheel chairs. What we need are specialized wheel chairs for children with different needs. We need small wheel chairs, we need wheel chairs with more support for the movement of the head, we need wheel chairs with more support for legs and feet, we need reclining wheel chairs etc. etc.. There are times when a standard adult chair can be adjusted to serve the needs of our young people and we also help any adult or senior citizen who also needs mobility aids but our focus is the children who have no other form of mobility. Our volunteers in minnesota and Wisconsin are able to get specialized equipment donated but it is getting it into Nicaragua in the middle of the crisis we are living that is the hard part.
We are grateful for all the support for this program especially in this time of crisis in Nicaragua when no one in the country has been receiving new wheel chairs. It is all about recycling and knowing that we all have mobility needs. So thank you as we continue to repeat that our children really need wheel chairs to be able to become more independent and to lift up their self-esteem. A wheel chair in the family helps everyone involved. So please continue to support this noble cause of mobility with dignity in Matagalpa Nicaragua, because we are all temporarily with mobility it is a gift so thanks for giving it to others.
By rebecca trujillo | directora
By rebecca trujillo | directora
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