Free Wheelchair Mission: A Conundrum

 

I was watching NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, when a segment aired about recipients of a new award. It’s called the “Above and Beyond Citizen’s Honor,” and it’s only being bestowed upon three people this year. My ears perked up when Brian Williams announced that one of the recipients was Donald Schoendorfer, the president and founder of Free Wheelchair Mission.  I have had a love-hate relationship with this man and his organization for three years now. Allow me to explain why. 

I first read about Free Wheelchair Mission in Reader’s Digest back in July of 2005. The article which described how Schoendorfer, a mechanical engineer, set out to create the world’s cheapest wheelchair, for use in developing nations, immediately resonated with me.  I’m a wheelchair user myself. Although I don’t rely on my Quickie GPV for everyday use, I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I couldn’t access it when I need it. Millions of people are not so lucky. According to the Free Wheelchair Mission website, there are 100,000,000 adults and children who are disabled and could benefit from a wheelchair.

 

My wheels: watch your ankles folks 

The cost of the wheelchair that Schoendorfer has produced is $50 (incredibly cheap, especially for a well designed product). What’s the problem then? Why can’t I just dig into my wallet and donate a wheelchair? Well I did donate, but I had misgivings for an unlikely reason. Free Wheelchair Mission is a Christian organization, and they proselytize when they distribute the wheelchairs. I can’t think of anything more disturbing than that. Well maybe I can, but still. People are in a desperate and vulnerable situation when they come seeking a wheelchair that could completely change their lives, and Free Wheelchair Mission is going to use that as an opportunity to push Jesus on them?!

Plenty of charitable organizations have a religious affiliation, and donors can usually make a choice about whether to give their money to those groups or to similar secular organization. The problem here, is that Free Wheelchair Mission is essentially the ONLY organization that has tackled this particular problem in an innovative way, with proven results, and on a large scale. To date, they have distributed 302,653 wheelchairs, at no cost to recipients. That is simply amazing.

I donated a wheelchair three years ago after reading the Reader’s Digest article. I received a card stating that the chair was slated for shipment and distribution to a person in Ghana. It was one of those situations where you donate and know that you will never physically see the benefits of your donation, but you really believe that the cause is important and could be life changing for someone else. A year-and-a-half later, I was teaching in Ghana, when I saw a man confidently rolling his wheelchair down the street. It was obviously a Free Wheelchair Mission wheelchair-there’s no mistaking that white lawn chair seat. I cannot tell you how happy I was at that moment.

Despite my feelings about the way that Free Wheelchair Mission conducts itself, I know that their work is irreplaceable and incredibly important. Without them, the man I saw in Ghana might be resigned to crawling on the ground, a situation that I have seen many times before in developing nations. I guess the conclusion that I have come to, is that I’ll continue to support FWM until a similar, secular organization comes along. 

The Fight Against Sexual Violence

This week I read a couple of articles that related news about sexual violence in several African nations. My eye always catches on these pieces because I have been involved in activism against sexual assault for about five years now. The first story was contained in little more than a paragraph in the New York Times. The content, however, was chilling. The piece was brief, so I’ve included it in its entirety:

 Violence has become so pervasive in South African schools that children as young as 7 play games such as “rape me, rape me,” where students simulate sexual attacks,” according to a chilling report issued Wednesday by the nation’s human rights commission.       

The research, which took 18 months to complete, was mostly done in Western Cape province.

Statistics were in short supply because most assaults in schools go unreported, the commission said. But the report asserted that physical attacks were alarmingly commonplace, including a phenomenon known as “corrective rape” where boys assault lesbian students to try to turn them into heterosexuals.

 Let’s place this in context: South Africa is a nation of 43 million people, where sexual violence is on the rise. In 1992 the number of reported rapes and assaults was listed at 42,429. By 2005, the number was up to 55,114. While reported rapes and sexual assaults are one indicator of levels of violence, a 2002 report by the Medical Research Council notes that only one in nine women reports her assault to police. Add to that the fact that only 7.6 percent of trial cases end with a defendant found guilty. The picture becomes clearer, and we begin to understand a seemingly incomprehensible news story.

If South African youth are growing up in a culture where sexual violence is increasingly prevalent, and punishment for offenders is extremely unlikely, perhaps it is not surprising that some children mimic the worst of what they see in the adult world. For a somewhat dated but excellent report on rape culture in Johannesburg, see this BBC article.

 
The second story I came across was on Ann Jones’ blog for the International Rescue Committee. Currently based in Sierra Leone, and working to implement a great project that I’ve talked up on here before, she relates what was ultimately a success story in the prosecution of a man who raped a seven-year-old. Her account details the obstacles created by the court system in Sierra Leone, and the powerful way that a group of women and men came together to fight for justice for the child.

 
The last article I’ll cover is about the creation of a special court for sexual violence in Liberia. Since the end of the civil war, rape has continued to be a serious problem, and delays in prosecution have led to impunity for offenders. Women’s rights groups advocated for two years to have this special court created, and it is finally being built. I think I’ll end on that positive note.

 

 

In the same vein, this is the plaque outside of Liberia’s Temple of Justice, which used to read “Let Justice be Done to All Men.” It will now read, “Let Justice be Done to All.”*

 *picture respectfully pilfered from Liberia Stories

Notes on Darfur Peacekeeping

A few signs that the peacekeeping mission in Darfur may be struggling:

•  African Union soldiers have to buy paint to turn their helmets United Nations-blue
• Slightly more than one-third of troops are in place, and the full contingent may not be deployed for a year
• A commander has begun to talk about miracles 

If it wasn’t evident to people that the Darfur peacekeeping mission has been limping along for some time, a New York Times article published today should set the record straight. The peacekeeping situation warrants some analysis not only because hundreds of thousands of lives depend on UNAMID’s ability to protect, but also because a new force stepped in on January 1st. 

 

 

Lydia Polgreen’s article discussed many of the obstacles faced by the hybrid African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force. However, she didn’t really get into any of the problems created by the United States. With the spotlight currently on China, that’s easy to understand. Still, the absence of any mention of the United States’ role seems like a glaring omission to me. 

 

Everyone who follows the genocide realizes that China and the Sudanese Government could give a crap about the people of Darfur. But what about the fact that the United States Congress has allowed a budget shortfall of $334 million for peacekeeping efforts for 2008? Furthermore, although President Bush authorized the deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping force, there is much more he could be doing. He should authorize funds for American allies to donate helicopters. Meanwhile, there are citizen action groups trying to raise money to pay for civilian protection, and the equipment that UNAMID troops so desperately need. But it’s easy to push China in front of the bus when our own indifference pales in comparison to their continued financing of genocide. 

 

If you were frustrated/pissed off/saddened by anything you read in the Polgreen article, you CAN do something. Taking action here in the U.S. to stop the genocide can be almost effortless:

 

If you want to tell Congress to fully fund the peacekeeping mission at $334 million, call 1-800-GENOCIDE. You’ll be connected to the staffer for your state. 

 

If you want to remind President Bush about his obligations to the peacekeeping effort, ask him to implement the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA) by April 29th. Read more about SADA, and send the president a message here.*

 

*These actions are courtesy of Genocide Intervention Network 

Making a Leap

After a colossal amount of hesitation, I am moving over to WordPress from Blogger. The fact that I may have irrevocably screwed up my blogspot in an attempt to be technologically savvy, provided needed impetus. Now that I’m here, I’ll try to keep the focus more on the content and less on the design.

 Click here to access old posts.