FELIX LESINAIVALU
With the aim to donate 700 wheelchairs to Fiji, the Wheelchair Foundation is well in line to achieve this target after donating 110 wheelchairs at the Fiji Pharmaceuticals and Biomedical Services in Vatuwaqa. Founder/ volunteer of the Wheel Chair Foundation Chetan Singh said it began in 2000 when he met founder of the Wheel Chair Foundation for the USA, Kenneth Behring during a convention. “I have admired the charity work that he (Mr Behring) and his family have done with the Wheelchair Foundation.”
“When I visited Fiji in 2010, I saw that there were many people in need of wheelchairs.” Mr Singh said that he was well supported by the Behring family and his own family.
“I have been working with them to raise funds for many other countries, for the last six to seven years.” Originally from Votua, Ba, Mr Singh said that he does this work as a calling from God to help people living with disabilities.
The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities. They purchase wheelchairs from manufacturers in China that build a quality product designed to be easily maintainable in developing countries.
The goal for the Wheelchair Foundation is to distribute one million wheelchairs in the next five years and to further the awareness that a wheelchair is no longer an unaffordable item for delivery in developing countries throughout the world. Minister for Health and Medical Services, Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete has emphasised that Fijians should work together for the benefit of the marginalized and persons living with disability by supporting them.
“Wheelchairs make persons living with disabilities mobile and it also gives them the opportunity to participate in life and we have been blessed with the wheelchair foundation.”