I’ll never forget that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I noticed a woman with a disability, crawling along a dusty road in Morocco, pulling herself forward with clawed fingertips as others made their way past her, kicking up dust with every hastened step.
With her face that close to the ground, she must have inhaled quite a bit of dust. Every day. I had never thought about what that must be like before, but I haven’t been able to forget it ever since.
This all came back to mind as I heard about a man in Uganda named Geoffrey.
Geoffrey lost his ability to walk when he was 10 years old. Doctors could not explain why and surmised that he might have stepped on poison that affected the tissue in his legs.
Now 36, Geoffrey makes a living making shoes at home. He does not leave his house very often and only goes out for special occasions. He had been hoping to receive a wheelchair to help him find work in the community, and also to go out and visit his friends.
Our distribution partner in Uganda, Father’s Heart Mobility Ministry, connected with Geoffrey and fitted him with a new GEN_3 wheelchair, a model that folds for ease of transport and storage.
The first time Geoffrey was lifted off the ground and into his new wheelchair, he burst into a grin and proclaimed, “I like feeling the fresh air up here.”
Geoffrey reminds us of the simple things we might take for granted: taking a breath away from the dust, visiting a friend without crawling through dirt, seeing people face-to-face instead of looking up from the ground.
Like Geoffrey, more than a million people can now enjoy a breath of fresh air, seated upright in a wheelchair, because of friends like you.
Thank you for all the ways you help change lives.
Blessings,
Don Schoendorfer
