ADRA Begins to Distribute Wheelchairs Across Mexico's Poorest Communities Sharon Dominguez - InterAmerica.org
go to original February 12, 2016

ADRA Inter-Oceanic Mexico’s Director Martin Olvera presents Gudelia Cuevas of Iztaccihuatl after she received a brand new wheelchair during a special ceremony in Cuautla, Morelos, on Jan. 16, 2016. (Gregorio Vázquez/IAD)

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Mexico’s Inter-Oceanic region began distributing wheelchairs to people with disabilities in Cuautla, in the state of Morelos, Mexico, during a special ceremony last month.

Young people, adults and the elderly were among the beneficiaries of what ADRA is considering to be the start of a large project that will see some 135 people with their very own wheelchairs, said Martin Olvera, ADRA director for the Inter-Oceanic Mexican region.

“This initiative was really born out of a visit ADRA made to a conference during which local church members asked for help for a fellow disabled church member whose family transported him in a wheelbarrow,” said Olvera. Soon more requests came in from different churches across the territory. District pastors and church elders were assigned to investigate the requests.”

According to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, in 2015, 6.6 percent of its population, or 6.1 million, reported that they had at least one person with a disability in their home. In other words, there is a person with some form of disability in 19 out of 100 homes in Mexico. Most of these cases, the data shows, have to do with people unable to walk, followed by vision disabilities, hearing and speech impediments, mental illness, personal care, and attention difficulties.

Read the rest at InterAmerica.org

Related: Wheelchairs Bring Freedom to Mexico's Impoverished (Modbee.com)

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