By Natasha Ridout | Volunteer Coordinator
It has been an eventful couple of months in the rehab centre. Firstly, a volunteer from the International Tennis Federation came to work with a couple of the rehab patients and as part of her visit they were able to participate playing wheelchair tennis in a local tennis festival in town. Herod was the champion, narrowly beating Fritzner to the trophy.
However, Fritzner can be forgiven for maybe not giving his all for the tennis cause as he has been training for the world championships in hand-cycling. Along with his trusty trainer, Senatus, he has been steadily training for the past six months on the roads surrounding the hospital to get in shape for the race. The world championships this year are taking place in Switzerland, and the duo had visas approved just in time to fly out mid-June so that they could acclimatise and continue their intense training schedule in Europe for six weeks before the big race at the end of July.
Our goal has never been to send all rehab patiants to compete in world competitions but through Fritzner's success many other disabled Haitians will be inspired to rebuild their lives and gain confidence from knowing their disability does not need to hold them back. Rehabilitation of the mind is sometimes harder than the body but just as Fritzner was inspired by the words of a disabled sports star who visited the hospital several years ago, many others will be inspired by him.
There were also tears at the rehab centre as the team said goodbye to Dr Moise, who has been part of the rehab centre since the very beginning. He has dedicated five years to HCBH, using his expertise to help establish the rehab service, and helping to make it the leading rehabilitation centre for spinal cord injuries that it is today. Staff said goodbye in a touching service where various members of staff paid homage to his dedication and contribution to the rehab centre. He will be missed but leaves behind a highly trained and competent team to carry on his great work!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
