By Valentine Marc Nkwame

The Wheelchair Foundation of the United States has donated a total of 100 customized wheelchairs to the disabled people of Arusha, Monduli, Arumeru and Babati Districts of Arusha and Manyara regions to assist the physically handicapped persons with individual mobility.

The chairs were handed to the beneficiaries during a special ceremony held at the Monduli Rehabilitation Center in Monduli District early this week. The donation was made through a Non-Profit establishment known as Conservation Foundation Trust, which was founded in 1994 by the Ramoni family of Arusha.

The Foundation was compelled to incur a further cost of transporting the beneficiaries from their home villages in order to attend the presentation ceremony and back, including ferrying the wheelchairs up to their doorsteps. Apparently, they did not anticipate the state of poverty that most disabled people in Tanzania are forced to endure.

According to Barbara Redding-Jones, the CF Trust’s Administration and Special Projects Manager, the recent consignment was part of the 14 containers of wheelchairs whose shipment started back in 2004 destined for Tanzania. "Each 40 foot-long container packs in 280 wheelchairs with their corresponding spare parts."

The rugged terrain wheelchairs come with frame-mounted air pump, a tire repair kit, reinforced front forks, heavy duty nylon seats, mountain-bike tires for better grip, removable arm rests and each is heigh-adjustable and can be folded for easy transportation.

A total of four such containers have been distributed between 2004 and 2006, which means a total of 1400 wheelchairs have so far been distributed to beneficiaries especially in the rural areas of Northern Tanzania. Each wheelchair is said to be valued at US$75 bringing the total value to US$10500 or about Tsh. 12 million.

Overall the Wheelchair Foundation founded by Kenneth E. Behring, intends to send down a total of 3,008 wheelchairs to Tanzania, the figure being part of the 11,452 wheelchairs that are destined to East Africa, with Uganda getting the most at 3,184, Kenya 2540, Rwanda 2200 and Burundi 520. WF works with 150 countries worldwide where over 580,870 wheelchairs are being distributed.

"Our society has totally forgotten handicapped people or their predicaments. We are grateful to the wheelchair foundation for at least enabling us to move about using these wheelchairs. Now handicapped people can attend school, church and visit relatives without being too dependent on others for movement," remarked Joseph Ngoidima a resident of Meserani, Monduli, who was one of the beneficiaries