2002 A PET In Peru
A PET goes upriver in Peru, taken there on a mission trip by
April and Jeff Sukup, of the Davis Island Baptist Church, in Florida.
2002
The PET Saved My Life
The reader can interpret what Mamuka Chikobava, above, meant
by that statement. He lives in The Republic of Georgia, and has
been for many years without the use of his legs. In his frustration
he has been using the little child's trike in the photo to sit
upon and scoot about.
Some 200 plus are on the waiting list in The Republic of Georgia,
including the little girl pictured below. With a child-sized PET
she will be able to play, go to school, and live a more normal
life.
2002
Polio Victim Receives PET
Rbmah Thanh is sixteen years old and lives with his parents,
who are farmers. They are a tribe people, from Montagnon, and
do not understand Vietnamese very well.
Rbmah is a victim of polio "since birth". He is very
happy with his PET because it will help him very much in getting
to school. He says, "Thank you."
2002
We Also Do Standard Wheelchairs
PET Project in Columbia, MO, collects used wheelchairs, sends
them to Hope Haven for refurbishment in the state prisons, and
they are then shipped overseas. Following is the report we received
from one distributed to Boanerges Antonio Sequeiura Garcia in
Nicaragua.
"Boanerges was born in the community of El Manzano with physical
disabilities that have restricted the use of his limbs. His mother,
Ana, is a single mother with eight children and has been unable
to give him the proper care. Boanerges has never had a wheelchair,
but was limited to being placed in a chair or bed in the house.
"With the new wheelchair Boanerges will be able to leave
the home and attend activities in the community. He is thrilled
that he will have more freedom and will be able to accompany his
family on outings in the future."
Persons wanting to donate used wheelchairs should get them to
PET Place in Columbia, MO, or to Hope Haven, 1800 19th St., Rock
Valley, IA.
2001
What A Difference A P.E.T. Makes
Note: The
photos from Vietnam in this issue are of very low quality. They
were made from a copy of a video, and then transferred from stopped
frames in the video. They are very blurred, but we want you to
get the images of the impact of a PET upon the lives of the recipients.
The woman above
came to the PET/wheelchair distribution in Vietnam walking on
all fours - her way of moving about for many years due to a disability.
She left (below) with a big smile on her face, driving her new
PET.
Hope Haven,
a Christian partner agency of PET, made the distribution. Hundreds
of people came to receive mobility. They were provided with either
wheelchairs or PETs, depending upon their situation and the supply.
2001
THE GIFT OF MOBILITY
Thirty-four
years ago this gentleman stepped on a landmine in Vietnam and
lost both legs - totally. He has moved about using two low stools,
placing his right buttocks on one, then swinging his left buttocks
to the next one and on and on, as shown in the photo below. One
can only try to imagine the difficulty and indignity of his mode
of travel.
He received
the GIFT OF MOBILITY and left with a huge smile on his face and
a wave of his hand.
2001
REQUESTS
PETs are now
in 19 countries, and as they have been tested and proven overwhelming
numbers of requests begin to come in. The PET distribution in
Vietnam, for example, caused this mother to request one for her
daughter, Hinh Chup Cam Wha bi Lut. The girl has a leg condition
that does not allow her to walk, and she wants to be able to go
to school. We have sent her letter to Hope Haven, the NGO that
makes PET distributions in Vietnam.
2001 A HONDURAS PET REPORT
Jeff Sukup,
from Tampa, Florida, recently went on a mission trip with a group
from Davis Islands Baptist Church, to Honduras. He carried with
him a PET made by PET Project Florida (directed by Larry and Laura
Hills). The PET was to be given to a worthy recipient yet to be
found.
They found
a man who was so very thankful for the PET that it made the taking
of it worthwhile. The man had one leg gone and the other was not
much good. He was a soccer player 30 years ago and the use of
his legs was very important to him He did not get out of his one
room at all. He had a wheelchair but could not make it go over
the rough roads by himself.
Jeff said
that when he got the PET he went riding along with no help at
all. When they went back a few days later he had already been
to visit his family, which he had not done in a long time.
2001 SHE WAS CARRIED IN AND RODE OUT ON
A PET
Twenty-three
years ago this Vietnamese woman developed polio, and has had to
be carried about ever since. But she heard of the PET/wheelchair
distribution, and rode away happily on a PET. She was an example
of one of the 21,000,000 persons in the world awaiting THE GIFT
OF MOBILITY.
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2002
Another Great PET Story
The Republic of Georgia: (A report written by Eteri Suladze,
ACTS (A Call To Serve) staff person who delivered the PET and
wheelchair)
The husband and wife in this report are both handicapped. The
wife had polio as a child, and the husband's lower extremities
became paralyzed from an accident at age 18. What surprised me
was the spirit of this couple. The man told me that after his
trauma he lived with his brother, but he did not want to be a
charity case, so he decided to marry and have a family of his
own.
They are married for 12 years now. They have built their little
house themselves. It is amazing to see how they manage to do all
the housework themselves, plus gardening and farming. The potato
rows are straight and clean. To make a living the man raises rabbits
and sells them, and hatches eggs and sells baby chicks. He showed
me the incubators for hatching baby chicks that he had made himself.
He took six old refrigerators, took the machinery out of them,
and turned them on their sides. He made mesh shelves, and uses
a kerosene lamp to heat each one. He hatches 600 chicks at a time.
They would not let us go without a dinner. His wife set a fire
in the oven and the man killed a rabbit and a chicken. They also
served pickled and fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from their garden.
There is a little creek running from his house and he together
with five other families built a little electrical generator.
He was in charge of the project. Now the six families have electricity
24 hours a day. He is now helping his brother's family.
His neighbor has 250 hectares of pasture and they are looking
for funding to build a cowshed and buy some cows. He said the
PET will allow him to move all around and will make life much
easier. It is such a blessing to see that something you do helps
people like him and his wife to cope with the difficulties of
life.
But most of all I was touched by his words when he said that as
precious as the wheelchair and PET are, the most important and
encouraging for him is the thought that there are people in a
far country who are thinking of those in need and then there are
people in this country who are looking for people like him and
his wife, finding those who they can help.
"This gives me strength to live," he said.
Eteri Suladze, ACTS (A Call To Serve) staff, Georgia
2002
Landmine Victim Recieves PET
While each PET recipient is unique and has different problems,
Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, of Vietnam, shown above, is more or less typical.
He is 61 years old and lost his legs to a landmine. He is married
and has seven children, two sons and five daughters. His wife
sells vegetables at the market. His children work at various jobs.
A local government office told him about the PET distribution
and took him to get one. He likes it very much and says, "Thank
you to all who sent it."
2002 REPORT FROM FREETOWN, Sierra Leone
In the fall
of 2001 52-boxed PETs were sent to New Steps, a project of Mercy
Ships in Sierra Leone, Africa. Our February mail brought this
letter:
"Greetings
from Freetown. I wanted to pass on these photographs that were
taken at Christmas time at some of the polio camps that we work
in. As you can see there are people who are using the P.E.T.s
that you sent.
The P.E.T.s
have been a great blessing to many of the people in the various
polio communities. Our physical therapists have distributed all
but 8 of what we received in November.
The hospital
ship Anastasia is planning to return again to Freetown within
the next twelve months. There will be another couple of ocean
containers that will be sent from Texas to meet the ship in Europe
in September. If your organization were interested to again partner
with Mercy Ships it would be a big help to the disabled of Sierra
Leone.
Thanks again
for your labor of love."
- Von Driggs, Logistics Coordinator
Note: The
PET Project has written that we would again like to share in their
mission - how many? - how soon?
2002
THE THERAPY VALUE OF PETS
We have assumed
from the beginning that the PET has value beyond its important
one of mobility -- that it can provide for its owner the additional
gifts of motivation, and of physical and emotional therapy. Wonderful
proof of this came in the form of the following letter from The
Republic of Georgia, where we are just starting a major mobility
project.
*************
"Dear
Mel,
PETs happened to have a great success in Georgia. We have multiple
requests for PETs once they have been given to individuals who
demonstrate their ability to independently move in their yards
and nearby streets, visiting their neighbors and friends. Apart
from being mere transportation means PETs quite unexpectedly turned
out to be a potent psychological instrument.
To illustrate
the above we shall provide one example of how PET helped a 12-year-old
boy both to become mobile and to get the spirit to fight his disease.
Guram Meskhishvili, 12, is suffering from cerebral palsy. He lives
nearby my house and for ten years I have watched his limp body
being carried in the old perambulator along the street. When his
father learned that ACTS (A Call To Serve) had PETs he applied
for one for Guram. I explained to him that PETs were not for patients
with cerebral palsy. However, Guram's father kept coming requesting
the PET. We discussed this at an ACTS meeting and decided to give
a PET to Guram on the condition that if the child were unable
to use it, the PET would be returned.
When some
days later Guram's father came to me and asked me to come and
see Guram I was astounded -- the boy was sitting (which was almost
unbelievable, because he had not been able to keep his back up),
gripping the wheel of the PET trying to drive it. His mother told
me that when he saw the PET he did not want to leave it and every
morning he was asking if the PET was really his. Guram's parents
told me that Guram is spending many hours a day in the PET.
Of course,
he cannot sit long and has learned to drive the PET in circles.
When he is tired his parents let him lay in the rear part of the
PET. His favorite activities are to play in the assembling the
PET, using the tools which came with it. His mother said he previously
could not very well coordinate the motions of his fingers, but
now his coordination is much improved. The boy who is mentally
absolutely normal and was suffering because of his physical state,
now when I saw him for the second time three months later looked
happy and he told me he has good hopes for the future. Guram's
parents asked me to tell you that every morning and night they
pray for those who put their hearts, skill and goodwill to make
those PETs and give them to those who are deprived of so many
pleasures of life. With best regards, Etiri Suladze"
2002 A Thank You From Vietnam
In the spring
of 2001 Hope Haven, a partner agency with PET, made a distribution
of wheelchairs and PETs in Vietnam. Landmines and war injuries
have taken a heavy toll on the people there. Recently PET received
a thank-you letter from the man in the photo above.
The photo
carries helpful information. It shows that the driver, who has
strong shoulders, felt he wanted more speed, so he put a larger
sprocket on the top. Since the beginning PET has felt that recipients
in the field will often have the ability and creativity to adapt
the generic PET to their particular needs. He has also painted
the bed red, giving it his own personal touch.
PET is a generic,
sturdy, simple “one size fits all” vehicle, with many possibilities
for field alterations to fit individual needs.
Prospere and his
PET
Prospere lives near the Baptist Seminary in Haut, Haiti.
As a child he had polio, which left his legs useless. He managed
to move about by dragging himself along the ground with his arms
and hands. When he wanted to go to church his friends would help
him into a wheelbarrow and trundle him there. Visiting people
from the USA became interested in him and arranged for a wheelchair
to be sent to him.
But a wheelchair, with
its narrow tires, was never intended to be used on the rocky,
uneven ground in his neighborhood, and wore out. Over the
years, Prospere had a series of such chairs.
Meantime, he became a
radiant Christian, and with the use of a manual stitcher he learned
the trade of a cobbler. He repairs all kinds of shoes, sandals,
and other leather or rubber goods. He has many friends in his
rural neighborhood.
Then friends heard of
the PET and requested one for him. Everyone was excited when Prospere's
PET arrived. He quickly mastered the technique of using it, and
now travels wherever he wants to go. He can even go into the town
of Limbe (4 miles away) along the main road, to the big market
to buy groceries, and carry them home in the back of the PET.
To say that he is thrilled with it is an understatement.
- Report by Larry Hills
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