We invite you to join us in prayer for the people of India as they endure a devastating surge in COVID-19 infections, with more than 20 million cases as of this writing.

India holds a special place in our hearts at Free Wheelchair Mission. It is where we gave away our first four wheelchairs over twenty years ago.

India is also where we gave away our 500,000th wheelchair in 2011.

So when we hear news reports about the current health crisis in India, the people are never far from our minds. We think about our distribution partners and the 101,480 individuals in India who have received one of our wheelchairs since 2001—individuals such as Malakondiah (41).

Malakondiah lives in the city of Ongole with his wife and four children, the oldest of whom has a chronic medical condition that stretches the family’s already-thin finances.

His wife works as a laborer while Malakondiah operates a small print shop in his neighborhood. He could not go too far from his home to earn a living because a bout with polio left him without mobility, and without a wheelchair, he would crawl to and from work each day.

But thanks to the generosity of friends like you, Malakondiah received a new GEN_3 wheelchair through our local distribution partner, India Christian Ministries. Now, he can get to the print shop more easily and even venture further out to earn additional income by working a second job at a Xerox store along the main road.

“We have been truly blessed by this wheelchair,” said Malakondiah, who was not a Christian but started going to church with his family.

Not only has the gift of mobility blessed Malakondiah, it blesses others, too. Whenever he hears that someone in town needs to get to a hospital but cannot walk, Malakondiah graciously lends his wheelchair to that person.

While we admire Malakondiah’s generosity, we do hope that someday, no one would need to borrow a wheelchair or crawl anymore. We believe in a world where everyone who needs a wheelchair has one.

Together, we are working towards that goal.

In the meantime, would you join us in prayer?

Please also consider supporting our Medical and Mobility Emergency Fund, providing much-needed medical supplies and mobility aids to the communities we serve around the world.