Cross-Border Collaboration Provides Low-Cost Wheelchairs and Prosthetic Limbs Monica Ortiz Uribe - NPR.org | |
go to original July 9, 2017 |
Political tension between the United States and Mexico is making headlines with talk of disrupting longstanding trade deals and constructing a border wall.
And then there's the story of Antonio Garcia.
A mechanic from southern Sonora, he had been limping around on crutches for three years. His right leg was amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident and buying a prosthetic leg was beyond his financial reach.
But he got the prosthesis just this January from a nonprofit that's a collaboration between Mexico and the U.S. It's called ARSOBO and it's working to transform the lives of low-income Mexicans with disabilities. The organization, whose name is an acronym that stands for Arizona/Sonora border, provides affordable prosthetics, specialized wheelchairs and hearing aids.
... ARSOBO provides disabled people who were once isolated, depressed or begging on the streets the possibility of getting a job or going to school. Their signature product is an all-terrain wheelchair, originally developed by a nonprofit in California, that can navigate uneven sidewalks and rough roads.
Since 2012 ARSOBO has provided 295 wheelchairs (about a third of them to children with cerebral palsy), 203 prosthetic limbs and 530 hearing aids.
Read the rest at NPR.org
We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!
From activities like hiking, swimming, bike riding and yoga, to restaurants offering healthy menus, Vallarta-Nayarit is the ideal place to continue - or start - your healthy lifestyle routine.