By Anca Beudean | Sustainability Director
Dear friend of Motivation Romania,
Happy New 2025! I hope the new year has started off well for you and your loved ones, bringing good energies, balance and clarity.
With each new person who asks for our help to regain their mobility, we are reminded that balance and clear skies are not easy to come by.
Andrei is thirteen. He was born with a mobility disability and needs a wheelchair to move around. He has been living in a public placement center for children with disabilities since birth. In 2024, he was reunited with his family and they live in a village, in Gorj County.
Our colleagues from the Motivation team in Mehedinti County met Andrei while he was living in the center. The staff there asked for our support with an appropriate mobility equipment for the boy. However, in time, that wheelchair became too small for Andrei.
It thus came to be that he received a powered wheelchair, donated by the local authorities. At first, everyone was enthusiastic about this. However, for Andrei this was not the best solution. He goes to school in the neighboring village and to get there, he has to take the school bus. With the powered wheelchair, he was not able to get on the bus, and it was also difficult to move around in the school and in the classroom.
Asking others for help and being carried around was making Andrei very sad. He had been used to handle his wheelchair on his own. Now, in the absence of an adapted transport solution for Andrei and his heavy powered wheelchair, his stepfather was carrying him all the time. The social workers even considered taking him back to the center.
The new wheelchair donated by Motivation towards the end of 2024 enables Andrei to move around on his own again – whether he is in the courtyard, at school, in the house or in the classroom. This makes him feel better, keeps him active and increases his self-esteem. Since Andrei received the new wheelchair, he has been smiling more and his attitude is more positive. Even though the house is not fully accessible for a wheelchair user, Andrei`s family is very supportive. His mother, her partner and their other children - Andrei’s half-siblings - do their best to make things work.
As you can see, Andrei has been through considerable mobility difficulties for a child his age. Hopefully, his mobility as well as his spirit will improve with the help of his new wheelchair, and with the support of his family.
Each year, Motivation gives back hope to more than 1,000 persons with disabilities like Andrei, by donating wheelchairs and providing wheelchair skills training.
In 2024, we gave back hope in a life of fulfilment to ten wheelchair users, through donations received on GlobalGiving. Every wheelchair was essential for enabling increased personal independence, mobility and the ability to participate in the family and the community again.
Motivation is here to support each wheelchair user on this road, one at a time. As new wheelchair users come to us for help, YOUR donation enables us to continue to help them. If you are able to make it a monthly gift, you will boost our ability to respond quickly to the ongoing need for appropriate wheelchair donations.
Make a monthly gift of hope and freedom of movement to children and adults with mobility disabilities like Andrei!
YOU help change lives for the better. Thank you!
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