Here are reports from two Rotarias about a recent event which they were very happily involved with
Rotarian Jan Eggum says -
"As a new rotarian I have participated in receiving and distributing wheelchairs. Last year, December 9th 2006, several Rotarians representing all the clubs in Pattaya unloaded a container with used wheelchairs from U.S.A. This month, January 18th 2007, I went together with Rtn. Theo (Theophil A. Hitz), Rtn. Anna (Naulnooch Phetchawee), guests from our Rotary club, and 2 American specialists who were responsible for the fitting of the wheelchairs.
We filled 3 cars with 5 wheelchairs and went to the northern parts of Chonburi early in the morning, and returned to Pattaya about 9 hours later with a good feeling. Everywhere we went the local health care officials were happy to receive equipment and external support, the families concerned were happy to see that their children got a better life and became easier to care for, and the users of the wheelchairs got a chance to see more of the world. Their situation was without exception extremely poor, as they were confined to hospital trolleys, ordinary chairs or beds. When we left they were able to propel themselves.
I am grateful for the opportunity to be of community service in this way, and believe that Rotarians really can make a difference for a lot of people in Thailand.
Best regards
Rtn. Jan Eggum"
Rotarian John Blair says -
"On Thursday the 7th of January 2007 we loaded up five wheelchairs into the back of my pickup and headed out of Pattaya, to Chonburi where we met up with a local Doctor and a welfare officer from the City Council. They led us to a house not very far from town. We were greeted by an old lady sitting outside with a beautiful little girl who was sitting on a table next to her grandmother. The little girl was sceptical of all these people and did not smile. We asked lots of questions and it turned out she was 12 years old and had never been to school. Her entire body was about 20 centimetres (less than one foot) wide and was about 40 centimetres (less than 2 feet) high. We had and engineer with us who was part of the mobility team from the USA that had bought 50 wheelchairs over with them.
The engineer made a number of adjustments to the wheel chair. Meanwhile I went in to the family house and found the father and the brother of the little girl. They were in a very poor condition and lay on a small thin mattress each on the floor. They were both crippled and could not get up. The little girl’s mother had cancer and was unable to do much for anyone. So it was left to the Grandmother to take care of everyone.
We gave the little girl who was by now very focused on what was going on around her some toys and crayons. It turned out that she could write her name and did not seem to be mentally backward in any way. When the engineer had finished his adjustments to the wheelchair the physio lifted up this tiny little bundle of a girl and placed her in the wheelchair. After getting some cushions around her very fragile little body, I took her outside and pushed her around the garden between the house and the road.
The expression on the girl’s face made it all worthwhile being a Rotarian. She was smiling from ear to ear, her eyes lit up as she knew from that moment her life was going to change for ever.Ten minutes later we were on our way. The little face as we left was sheer joy as she realised that the miserable life she had before was over. She would be able to go out and see the people and even go to school. Complete life changing. The thing most obvious to us was that we could see that she knew it.
We then headed out into the farmlands, where we turned down a track in a sugar cane field, where we met a lady called Jin.
We pulled up at a house with 3 sides to it (it was completely open on one side). The one room was 3 meters x 3 metres and the only furniture was a low table 2 metres x 2metres. This table had a hole in it that was the toilet. On the table was Jin, she was extremely contorted, her pelvis was twisted one way and her spine and neck twisted another way.
She is 37 years old and had never ever been out of the house. She has never felt the wind on her face. The physio took a long time trying to straighten out Jin’s body and get her sitting up. The physio had been using a lot of force to work on Jin. But she knew that she was in good hands and smiled all the time the physio worked on her. Eventually we got her into the wheelchair and the engineer made more adjustments and made her comfortable. She is looked after by a friend who lives nearby. We asked her friend to push her outside to see if she liked the wheelchair. Although Jin could not speak and could not tell us anything, we knew that we had just changed her life; the expression of delight on her face was the best thing we could see and it said everything. She knew her life was going to be different from now on.
Her friend told us that Jin had one wish. She wanted to see the ocean. We plan to fulfil her wish for her soon.
Rotarian Captain John Blair"
