Wait! Where are you going with those Chairs?
What have you done to Chair? You monsters! You… you…
Oh.
Um. Right. So. Carry on:
Chair is doing charity work! Chair seems to have signed up with an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission, and is doing what a Chair does best: supporting people.
Here’s Free Wheelchair Mission’s review on Charity Navigator. They’re definitely religious, which might not be your thing — but they’re frikkin’ handing out free wheelChairs, including in Haiti, and it’s hard to argue with that.
Found by: Julie and someone else but I can’t find the e-mail, sorry
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Copy & paste this:
So proud of chair, such a generous way to help people – he’s growing up so fast *beams*
That’s awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
i love chair
Chair: a beacon of goodness for all mankind, and my nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
That other person was me.
I think these chairs are really awesome. Glad you posted it.
Well that’s cool–Chair has a most excellent job! I do think the first pic is rather barbaric tho, cramming them all into that truck.
Hurray!
Glad chair is getting such good publicity for doing such a good thing :0)
Julie
Ok, somebody had to take the plunge…
I made a donation to pay for one wheelchair, in Chair’s honor.
And I told the organization that I heard about them here.
So come on guys, it’s a good cause… if you love Chair and can afford to do it, help out his brethren and sistren with their good works.
So did I. And also noted where I heard of them (here).
Even if you don’t want to make a donation now (what? not even a little?), their site is worth a visit to find out about this remarkable effort.
I’m in, too. Particularly seeing as I was just yakking it up about having disposable income in my demographic, I might as well put it to some good use. So another wheelchair in the name of Lovely Listing it is.
By the way, the religious thing is not my gig, but I somehow doubt a person whose ability to move about more freely is being granted will mind in the slightest.
“Chairty” = 1; Disposable income = 0
There is some forlorn Chair, in a basement bonus room, cowering from the black mold, just waiting for the light…and I know I can help.
Oh right…and the disabled humans…who can move around now…yea…cool!
How ’bout them Cowboys?!
And if you want to give them money but not all of the personal information they ask for, they are listed at http://www.goodsearch.org. I’ve changed my goodsearch setting to FWCM for the time being.
Or, I guess, you could just make stuff up. I have a tendency to use my local supermarket’s address. It’s in my ZIP code, so if they’re compiling geographic data that way, they get the right info, but it’s not *here.*
On a serious basis, my friends who are disabled advocates (and wheelchair bound) loathe Free Wheelchair Mission. The problem is that the wheelchairs made from Chair are not sturdy and break down in a few months … and they are not easily repaired. Also, since these chairs are given away for free, in several countries they’ve had the effect of crashing the local wheelchair economy, resulting in even *less* wheelchairs being available locally, especially to people for whom the FreeChairs may not be adequate.
Whirlwind and Motivation are organizations which train and supply local people to construct wheelchairs with appropriate technology. Please support these organizations instead of Free Wheelchair Mission. Free is not always free.
http://www.motivation.org.uk/
http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/index.htm
I was wondering about that — Chair, for all Chair’s good qualities, is usually pretty flimsy.
Josh, I didn’t see your message until after I donated I understand the concern and appreciate the heads up. I am going to counter with something here, and ask that it also be kept in mid. We tend to associate the need for a wheelchair solely with a permanent disability, and that’s not always the case.
Particularly following the Earthquake there is going to be a pronounced need for wheelchairs that allow people to recover from bone breaks, but there is always a need for those chairs also.
Beyond that, although I appreciate the information, I still would have donated. I understand your points, but there are few perfect solutions in this world.
My son wears hearing aids. Gosh it’s great that he has cool, blue, high-tech little gadgets that help him hear. But if the only thing we could get was a dorky box that hung around his neck with wires running up to big, ugly, high-visibility aids we’d give thanks for anything that gave him access to sound, language, and interaction with others.
I can see how western, first-world advocates for the disabled would be appalled at these wheelchairs… tacky, no? And pretty low-tech.
But bear in mind that they are given out to people for FREE, (regardless of their religious beliefs.) And they are given to people who have nothing. People who are dragging themselves around on the ground, or waiting for someone to carry them. Whatever the “local wheelchair economy” may be, it’s not serving these people. Sometimes even a “low cost solution” isn’t an option.
And it appears that cheap plastic chairs are available pretty much worldwide, so anyone with the ingenuity to build wheelchairs locally ought to be able to smart out how to fix one. Or copy it.
Just my two cents.
ditto. i’m sure ppl would prefer at least something to nothing. i have seen some heartbreaking documentaries about wives carrying their paralyzed husbands or children around the house b/c there is no other way to transport them. think of the life changing effect that self-mobility will give these ppl.
Agreed, better to have a crappy wheelchair for some of the time than a nicer wheelchair…well, never. Make do with what you have, so that as many people as possible might be helped, right?
Wow, that is totally cool! I am definitely giving to them. Religiously motivated or not, they’re going about it the right way. Not trying to heal people with nonsense (like the Scientologists who muscled their way into Haiti after ditching the doctors and nurses they were supposed to be bringing) but with freakin’ free wheelchairs! I mean, that will *really* help! Very awesome indeed!
I wouldn’t worry about the Scientologists getting many converts in Haiti — or even much of a welcome: people with no relief-worker skills (oh goody: free religious massages that’ll cure all your problems!), medicines, food or anything else, people who’ll just take up space, eat the food that’s already in short supply, and waste the time of everyone who is trying to provide REAL assistance?
Besides, find a Haitian who can currently afford to pay for the “audits” Scientology sells under the guise of religious studies!
Chairity…
Whoops, I was wondering why the obvious pun hadn’t been exploited, but then I saw the title of the post. My bad.
ann — I’m not worried about them converting people. I’m just pissed they took up space on the tarmac when real relief flights have a several-day backlog.
yeah, I totally agree, to the extent that I’m wondering how they got permission to land on that tiny tarmac!
The Chairs are delivered by shipping container and haven’t taken up room on the tarmac. You are right, initial aid deserves priority. FWM will be delivering 3 or 4 full containers of 550 wheelchairs each within the next 2 to 3 months. They have a Haiti page on their site at http://www.freewheelchairmission.org/helphaiti
cheap or not, religious or not…look at the smiles that a humble, sweet, plastic chair can bring to faces. wow. thanks for sharing, sarah!