FFTP widens wheelchair distribution programme

Jul 10, 2016 News

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For many years Jimeel Davis has been allowed to play an integral role in the operation of an organisation that thrives on a mission to help the materially poor while bringing them closer to their Creator.
The organisation to which he is associated is Food for the Poor Guyana Inc. and it is not at all surprising that Davis has a clear idea of the needs of many of the vulnerable in society. You see his father (Leon Davis) long before him also had a hand on the pulse of the very organisation for a number of years.
Jimeel Davis understandably developed a passion for what his father did. He was recently recognised as a long serving employee, having already spent 15 years catering to the needy.
He currently holds the position of Senior Manager of the Gifts in Kind Department.
As part of continuing efforts he was able to help put into motion a simple but very important programme that has been able to reach a wide cross section of Guyana.
The programme is a wheelchair distribution venture which was kicked into motion last year, in collaboration with the Free Wheelchair Mission of the United States.
Founded in 2001 by Laurie and Don Schoendorfer as a faith-based, non-profit humanitarian organisation, it has over the years been able to provide wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations.
According to Davis, the collaboration last year saw a total of 550 wheelchairs being distributed and a similar feat is expected to be realised this year.

The process has already started, the Senior Manager revealed. FFTP has in its possession a shipment of 550 wheelchairs and the distribution process commenced last month, Davis informed.
On Friday, the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre was the recipient of 50 wheelchairs from FFTP. In fact the two organisations have decided to partner to help advance the FFTP wheelchair distribution programme. According to Davis, “they are doing repairs and they are also distributing wheelchairs for us.”
Yet another partner of the venture, he said, is the Suddie Hospital in Essequibo, which has already distributed 10 wheelchairs and received 10 more on Friday.
The St Francis Community Developers in Berbice is another partner of FFTP. President of the organisation, Mr Alex Foster, has been spearheading the distribution activity in Berbice, Davis said.
While Davis couldn’t assure that the venture will be annual, he did highlight that a repeat this year was engaged after US donors saw how successful it was last year.
“The donor saw that we did such a good job at distributing the wheelchairs so they decided to send us another set of wheelchairs,” Davis related.
Last year the wheelchairs distributed were of the GEN 2 type which is not collapsible.
This, according to Davis, was the single issue the initiative had, since a number of wheelchair-bound persons were not completely happy with this type of wheelchair.
“We had a lot of complaints for people who are very active…people who are wheelchair-bound and go to clinic, who use public transportation and need their wheelchair to fold, they were the ones who were particularly not pleased with the GEN 2,” Davis related.
But on this occasion, he noted that some persons, mainly those who are very active, will be eligible to trade in their GEN 2 for a GEN 3-type wheelchair, which is collapsible. The donor, on this occasion, Davis said have made available 50 of this type of wheelchair.
“We want to make sure that the GEN 3 goes to people who really need them,” said Davis, as he added that “We will do this distribution like a pilot project and we will see how it works…we hope to receive feedback from the public about how the GEN 3 is working, and we will provide that information to the donor and in the next shipment we hope to get all GEN 3,” Davis asserted.
While people in need of wheelchairs are able to receive them at no cost to them, Davis disclosed that the name, address and contact information, together with a photograph of the person in need and a doctor’s recommendation, be submitted to FFTP to help verify that there is an authentic need.
“We need to ensure that the people receiving the wheelchair is actually disabled and is in need of a wheelchair…” said Davis as he added that FFTP and its partners, tasked with the distribution process, will fully setup the wheelchairs all of which arrived in parts from the donor.
“We will be ensuring that each person who receives a wheelchair receives one that is the right size to fit them perfectly…we are not giving people too small wheelchairs or too big wheelchairs, because not using the right size has been found to have side effects,” Davis added.

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