Today's note is written by an extraordinary young man named Hieu. He has led our wheelchair program for several years now. When he first began I had a meeting with him to make sure his position was a "good fit" I asked him "how are you doing? How do you feel working with the disabled and in particular the wheelchair program?
His answer to this day still both surprises me and excites me! He said in no uncertain terms, "I was born to this!!!" He has done a remarkable job. He is responsible to distribute about 1000 chairs a month. Not an easy task. Here's his story.
How to lift people from the ground:
Recently you can read many wheelchair recipients' stories on GIBTK journal's website. But we would love to share more stories of them because there are over 122,000 wheelchairs that were delivered to our disabled people in Vietnam and the need is still very high.
At Giving It Back To Kids, we believe that no one should have to crawl on the ground, or spend most of their time on the bed or in a corner of the room.
GIBTK has four generations of wheelchairs to distribute, from right to left: Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3 and Gen 4 (Gen 4 is to be tested)
In a distribution in Quang Ngai province, I was very impressed by one family. A 78-year-old lady rode on a very old bicycle three miles to pick up a wheelchair for her son. I and the partner in Quang Ngai rode on our motorbikes following her very slowly to visit her son.
A 78-year-old mother rode on a very old bicycle to pick up the wheelchair for her son!
Mr. Nguyen Van Son used to be a breadwinner who was a brick-layer to earn $10 per day. But things changed when he fell down from a scaffold that injured his spine and took away his mobility. Son doesn't own any wheelchair and has to stay on a bed day-by-day. Sometimes when his mom goes out he had to crawl on the ground to drink water or feed himself. His mom becomes a bread-winner to grow up Son's children and takes care of Son every day. Son's wife has cancer and is having treatment in Ho Chi Minh city, so their family is really poor and cannot afford a wheelchair. Son's father, passed away in 2015.
Mr. Nguyen Van Son and his mother and children; all of them were very happy with the wheelchair. Now thanks to the wheelchair from GIBTK after waiting six years, Mr. Son can help his mom do some small house chores such as cleaning the house or feed the cows. His attitude and spirit get better as well and he believed the wheelchair is a gift from God.
Below is a recipient who has a family member to take care of him. So what if they live alone? Yes they will need the wheelchair the most. Ms. Phung Thi Lanh is such a case. She got a fever when she was very young which made her paralyzed. She lived with her sister and brother until she was 18 years old when they got married. From that point moving forward, she lives alone and spends her whole life crawling on the ground. Then she used a small wooden seat to move.
She has no income except a monthly $18 allowance from the government. Some kind neighbors give her rice or vegetables, fish and small piece of meat to live. She does everything on the ground and has to look up when people talk to her.
She is an acupuncturist. When people get sick, their family member drives a motorbike to pick her up to do acupuncture for the patients and she does it for free. Sometimes people give her a little money, but actually from the bottom of her heart she really wants to help people for free because she believes people helped her in her life.
She had to crawl on the ground almost her whole life!
Because the community is very far with very limited access to NGOs, she has waited for a wheelchair for a very long time. In a distribution trip to Quang Binh province, I brought the wheelchair to her house which was built by the government and had a good time talking with her. She cried in happiness and demonstrated how she used to move on the wooden seat.
Sitting on her very first wheelchair, Lanh was very happy and grateful to FWM and GIBTK's gift of mobility. She said "You took me up from the ground".
Ms. Lanh on her very first owned wheelchair!
Owning the wheelchair, she is free to move! And she can go out more to help people with God's gift of acupuncture. Thanks to the wheelchair, she can help more people! That's not only a transformation in her personal life, but also a transformation to the community!!!
Sincerely,
Ha Quang Hieu
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