Good news! You've enabled a cascade of wheelchairs (see below)
We need your help to make a bridge between the wheelchairs and the children who need them
Covid isn't easy! All of us have struggled. It's always so good to say thanks and give back. Here’s a great opportunity to do just that.
BethanyKids normally asks that families pay $35 for a rehab assessment before wheelchair fitting. (This isn’t to pay for a wheelchair at all. The cost with shipping - for most pediatric supportive chairs is around $500. Funds are raised for these other ways. Check out the cascade below!!). During Covid, families have had a hard time economically. On top of that, with Covid restrictions, it been hard for therapists to see children who need wheelchairs, so it’s been hard to keep paying staff!! With proper Covid protocols, doors are opening to help kids who need wheelchairs. But it’s a puzzle how to pay for that since many families are now in much reduced financial situations.
Good news!! BethanyKids has started wheelchair benevolence fund. This fund is designed for families who can’t afford to pay even $35 to apply for help. This gets chairs to those who need them and lets local staff keep working as they serve God by caring for these families.
It would be great if you could pray for each of the families that are helped. Each will interact either with Francesca or with Dennis, chaplains who have struggled with disability. Here’s a link to a four-minute video about Francesca.
Wheelchair cascade!! Thanks to all who helped!
It all started with a promise last year from Samaritan’s Purse USA of funds for 4 pediatric chairs for children in Kenya: The interest from Samaritans Purse gave us a drive do this well and possibly open more doors with that great organization. But four wheelchairs could not be purchased alone!! A container would need to be ordered!!
Options were:
A. Try to find funding for 20 additional wheelchairs so that wheelchairs could be ordered from CLASP. With funds for 20 and the cost of shipping a small container from CLASP could be ordered.
B. Try to get approval from Hoggi to donate demonstration stock. We would need to pay all shipping. Funds could help cover shipping and would likely get about 20 very high quality pediatric chairs to Kenya.
C. Try to find funding for BeeLine wheelchairs to fill and ship a small container. With funds for 100, plus shipping, a small container could be sent.
We didn’t know which option would succeed. Ecclesiastes 11 “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” Therefore, we pursued all three.
Below I’ve split the cascade into streams A, B, and C, and described what is happening.
A. CLASP https://www.clasphub.org/
Some of you came on board to fund additional chairs. Enough to make the order! Thank you :-)
4 +16+20
The initial twenty wheelchairs from CLASP were ordered. This order opened a conversation that enabled our BethanyKids to apply for CLASP partnership. Partnership came with one initial provision of 80 more wheelchairs funded by a grant CLASP. These chairs have arrived in Kenya!!
20+80=100
Later on the initial order with CLASP opened doors for BethanyKids to apply and qualify for some CLASP 50/50 funding (basically matching funds) BUT a minimum of $10,000.00 USD had to be raised by us to qualify for these matching funds. ($50 a chair for 20 chairs, so with the matching grant this gives 40 chairs) A Go Fund me and a campaign raised the funds! Thanks again to those who helped!! These chairs are just now being ordered.
100+40=140
B. Hoggi https://hoggi.de/en/products/wheelchairs
I approached a friend at Hoggi, and they agreed to donate some wheelchairs and devices which had been used for demonstration on the condition that our partners will arrange and pay for shipment. Figuring out how to do this with DHL during Covid was a challenge!! This shipment is on the way now.
140+20=160
C. BeeLine https://www.beelinewheelchairs.org/
initially we looked for a way to send a small container of BeeLine chairs because they are so adaptable!! But this went another direction. Covid has made it very clear that local initiatives are much more sustainable. Now we’re working toward a BethanyKids facility to assemble BeeLine chairs Kenya!! The first step in the works right now is to order a container of chairs. (More are in a container since they’re no assembled). Someone from BeeLine will then come and train the team, and plans will be to make parts locally. The next shipments could be even more effective since they would include only parts that can’t be made locally.
Plans are that this will be sustainable and ongoingIf any of you are interested in a larger donation with real lasting impact, start-up funds for the new local facility are badly needed. Feel free to contact us for more details on plans and budgets.
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