100 wheelchairs are now making their way to Haiti, just in time for Christmas, as part of Walkabout’s ongoing commitment to change more lives and help the country recover from the devastating earthquake back in 2010.

This directly follows on from another very successful distribution of 300 wheelchairs in November, bringing the total number of chairs sent to Haiti this year to 720. The Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, has been taking a really hands-on approach, helping our trained volunteers to build and individually fit the wheelchairs, and we witnessed first-hand evidence of yet more people for whom chairs have changed lives.

One person whose life was transformed by her custom-fitted Walkabout chair is 17-year-old Iclide Simeon, from Jacmel in southern Haiti, who lost the use of her legs after she was shot in September 2013. Iclide was beginning to develop a postural deformity in her spine owing to an ill-fitting wheelchair from which she repeatedly fell. Now, thanks to her new Rough Rider chair, Iclide can comfortably and independently receive the physical rehabilitation, psychosocial support and vocational skills training she needs to prepare her for reintegration into the community.

Another Rough Rider recipient for whom life is much less of a struggle is 31-year-old Zephyrin Chrism, who became paraplegic after falling from a tree in April of this year. Zephyrin was experiencing extreme discomfort from using a wheelchair that was too small from him, but is now very happy and his new chair he received in October is his pride and joy.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our local partner in Haiti, BSEIPH, and in particular to David Charles and Gerald Oriol for all their hard work. And we would also like to thank all of you who have supported our endeavour in Haiti through your generous donations. So far these have enabled us to distribute 2,300 of the 10,000 chairs we originally pledged. If you would like to change more lives like these by making a contribution to this programme, or to a project in any of the other countries to which we distribute, just follow the tab above to our “donate” page and give whatever you can.

Team Walkabout recently travelled to Haiti, the country where we first donated wheelchairs after the devastating earthquake in 2010. Monica Gonzalez-Bunster and Director of Programs Stefanie Haigh took a trip to Port-au-Prince, Fond des Blancs, Cap-Haitien and Central Plateau to meet some of the individuals whose lives have been changed by the donation of a Walkabout wheelchair.

They were told many inspiring stories of previous recipients who have now started a new career, hobby or life as a Walkabout wheelchair user. For example, Eugene Fritzner (pictured above with Monica) is now a prominent wheelchair athlete! The team also spent some time visiting our partners, BSEIPH (the Secretary of State’s Office for Persons with Disability), to talk about our ongoing pledge to donate 10,000 wheelchairs to Haiti, as well as talking to customs officials to ensure a smooth donation arrivals process into the country.

All in all, it was a very successful trip. Thank you to everyone who has donated to Walkabout since the beginning. Your money has enabled us to change thousands of lives and make a huge impact on a country that desperately needed help.

On April 15th 2013, Walkabout Foundation and a group from Greenwich Country Day School (GCDS) travelled to Haiti to individually distribute dozens of RoughRider wheelchairs to adults and kids in need all across the country.

After GCDS hosted a walkathon at its campus this past October and raised $47,000, the equivalent of 156 wheelchairs, GCDS mothers Magdalena Miguens and Nancie Forrest, teacher and head of Community Service, Jen Donnalley, Saurel Edouard, and headmaster Adam Rohdie and his wife Alisa, all travelled with Carolina and Monica Gonzalez-Bunster to Haiti to build and distribute many of the wheelchairs the GCDS students fundraised for.

The team travelled all across Haiti over 5 days, starting with a visit to St Boniface in Fond des Blanes where Adam Rohdie played basketball with some of Walkabout’s previous wheelchair recipients, followed by a stop in Les Cayes where they went from house to house donating chairs, followed by a trip to Haiti Hospital Appeal in Cap Haitian where they met Fabien, a little girl who was born with Spina bifida and had a pressure soar caused by dragging herself on the floor, to a stop at FONHARE in Quanaminthe where 30 people were eagerly awaiting their new chairs, and ending the trip in Carrefour at Hospital Adventiste d’Haiti where the team worked quickly to distribute more chairs before catching a flight back home. Each day posed a different challenge but could not have been more rewarding. That indescribable moment of seeing a person’s face light up as we personally help them gain their independence is priceless. And as Jen Donnalley so beautifully stated, “the squeals of joy will be a sound I will carry with me always.”

If your school would like to get involved and do something similar, we would love to hear from you! Please email info@walkaboutfoundation.org.

We are incredibly proud to announce that Walkabout has pledged to donate 10,000 wheelchairs to Haiti over the next five years.

On Wednesday, May 14^th 2012, Walkabout Foundation was invited to attend a special ceremony and press conference in Port-au-Prince with Gerald Oriol, Haiti’s Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities, in order to publicly announce its commitment to donate 10,000 wheelchairs to Haitians with mobility disabilities throughout the country. The wheelchairs will be donated over the course of 5 years directly to Secretary Oriol’s Bureau for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities, which will then work with local organizations to ensure that the wheelchairs are distributed and delivered to the people that need them most. It is estimated that thousands of Haitians were physically injured by the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, in addition to the thousands of Haitians that were already living with amputations and mobility disabilities within the country. Representatives from over 30 NGOs attended the ceremony and press conference, but the highlight of the event was a special visit by President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe who came to support our initiative and express their own personal commitment to focus on the plight of Haitians with disabilities and support our wheelchair donation.

Additionally, Walkabout Foundation sent a summer intern, Simon Morgan, who is pursuing a Masters in Public Health at Columbia University, to work alongside Secretary Oriol in Port-au-Prince to establish a strategic plan for the efficient and responsible distribution of the 10,000 chairs.