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Wheelchair help for needy westerners

Published:Saturday | March 16, 2013 | 12:00 AM
The Free Wheelchair Mission and the EREA teamed up to provide wheelchairs to hundreds of Jamaicans. Here (from left) Errol Rattray of EREA and Dr Eric Blum from Free Wheelchair Mission hand over a set of wheelchairs to Camile Lewin and Deborah Lawrence from the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

Western Bureau:

The Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association (EREA) and the United States-based Free Wheelchair Mission recently donated wheelchairs to the needy in western Jamaica.

"Through the various social-intervention programmes that my organisation operates, we realised that many persons are expressing a need for wheelchairs," said Errol Rattray during the handover ceremony at Faith Temple Assembly of God Church in Montego Bay. "The need is becoming more obvious each time we go into the various communities across Jamaica."

Since the start of this year, Free Wheelchair Mission has donated 550 wheelchairs. Of that number, 240 were assigned to western Jamaica, with the rest going to persons in Kingston. Since 2012, the US-based organisation has donated 1,100 wheelchairs locally.

"When we got the call from Free Wheelchair Mission, we saw it as a great opportunity to help many of the persons who have made request to us for wheelchairs," said Rattray. "This is our way of giving hope and giving back to the society."

With the consistently high demand for wheelchairs in Jamaica, the EREA has moved to create a database to identify persons who are in need from across the island.

"We want to collate the information of those who need this equipment," said Rattray. "If you know someone who really needs a wheelchair, contact us so we can put the information in our database. In so doing, when we get more wheelchairs, we will be able to readily identify those who are in need."

DONATING WORLDWIDE

Free Wheelchair Mission was established 10 years ago, and since its inception, it has distributed 700,000 wheelchairs worldwide.

"We started this process of associating with Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association four years ago," said Dr Eric Blum, dean at the University of Redlands in California and a volunteer with the mission.

"We became partners with them and our joint goal is to meet the need of those who need a wheelchair," said Blum. "We are hopeful that through this partnership, we will help Jamaicans who really need a wheelchair to get one."

According to Blum, many of the local recipients of wheelchairs had considered themselves forgotten, and as a consequence, it gave him a special joy to be able to give them hope and mobility through the donation of the wheelchairs.

- S.G.