Kimoni Harris, Staff Reporter
Once more, the Food For the Poor Organisation (FFP) has extended a helping hand when it donated more than 40 motorised wheelchairs to several persons at the Food For the Poor Clinic located at the St Joseph's Hospital yesterday.
The donations were made in collaboration with The Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabili-ties, Mona Rehabilitation Centre, Rural Services for Persons with Disabilities and Portmore Self-Help.
Appreciated
The joint move will see the motorised wheelchairs being distributed to disabled persons across the island. The venture was endorsed and appreciated by members of the disabled community.
When the Star spoke with Ransford Wright, executive director of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities, he was quite pleased with the distribution of these wheelchairs.
Tower of strength
"The Food For the Poor organisation has been very helpful over the years. Their medical department has been a tower of strength to us. With these motorised wheelchairs, many disabled persons can now be more mobilised. They are able to travel more freely and they are more independent. We are very pleased with these chairs and we are just appealing to the Government of Jamaica to make the country more disabled friendly," he said.
He added that a challenge normally presents itself when the chairs are to be repaired. However, Patrick Rhoden, a disabled person, has been the pioneer in repairing these chairs.
The chairs cost more than $100,000 but the Food For the Poor Organisation in Florida donated them free of cost.
Susan Moore, director of health-care services at the FFP, told THE STAR that "with these chairs, we are hoping to enhance persons' mobility. We want to enhance their present situation of confinement".
Last a long time
She said the chairs are expected to last a long time and they would be getting feedback to find out how comfortable the chairs were.
Daveanna-Kay Granville, 20, said: "I recently became a disabled person and it has been so hard for me to adjust. I am sincerely thankful to FFP, I can continue school and I won't have to depend on someone to push me around, I am now mobile. I wish there could be more ramps on the road and I just want all disabled persons to get together and be a force in society."
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