The World Health Organisation estimate that there are 70 million people in the developing world that are in need of wheelchairs but can’t get them. This is also true for many countries that are not regarded as being developing, countries such as Ukraine where there is no health service unless a person has the funds to pay for it and isolation for disabled people is common-place. Disabled people desperately need wheelchairs and mobility aids because mobility poverty is unfortunately a way of life.
Every person in the world has the right to have a life with dignity and respect and with choice and independence, the basis of all equality, but where mobility poverty exists there is no dignity, or respect and people have no choice and independence is impossible.
Disability Beyond Borders is constituted to work in any country in the world and over the past five years we have been working in Ukraine. We have been providing wheelchairs and mobility aids while advising governments at local, regional and national levels about inclusivity and access to the environment, buildings and peoples own homes.
When a disabled person has no means of mobility their home, immaterial of where they live, becomes their prison and isolation becomes an ever-increasing burden weighing down on them.
This is equally true when the environment in which a disabled person lives is not suitable to cope with their needs, for instance, if path’s and pavements are not suitable for a wheelchair, or if there is no means to cross a road, if public transport is not accessible, if someone can’t get to the shops or indeed if they are unable to use their own home because it is not suitable for their needs. We can make a real difference on a disabled persons life by advising on what adaptations are suitable, usable and practical.
Without your help and your donations, we are not able to carry out our valuable work for the benefit of disabled people who are among some of the most vulnerable people in the world today.
Please make a donation to Disability Beyond Borders today so that we can continue with the valuable work that we do for disabled people.