Rotary Club plans to issue more wheelchairs in 2007

BY PAUBY VAUGHN DAVIS Observer staff reporter L HENRY Observer writer Thursday, December 21, 2006

THE Rotary Club of St Andrew on Tuesday finalised plans to distribute 280 wheelchairs to needy people across the country. The club was also presented with a cheque valued at US$42,000, by the Jamaica National Foundation, which will be used to clear a container on the wharf in which the wheelchairs are being kept.

After distributing this batch of wheelchairs, the Rotary Club of St Andrew will have distributed 860 wheelchairs - which have a market value of approximately J$20 million - since the inception of this project four years ago.
According to Lloyd Eubank Green, chairman of the Rotary Club's Wheelchair committee, the club was very pleased to be offering this service.

"You have some people who have the need, someone without mobility. You have people who are confined to their rooms, they are in darkness. They have sicknesses that they can't move out of the darkness. When they have wheelchairs they can get out into the light," Eubank-Green told the Observer.

He said the focus of the Rotary Club of St Andrew, come 2007, would be to find people who are in need of wheelchairs, who aren't registered with the Jamaica Council for People With Disabilities.

"The Jamaica Council for People With Disabilities has over 5,000 registered persons who need wheelchairs. I feel that there is another 5,000 who need wheelchairs, who don't have a voice, and those are the people we want to reach," he said. In this regard, Eubank Green said special emphasis would be placed on rural communities.

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