Disability Rights Romania Project #51901

Motivation Romania Wheelchair Fund

by Fundatia Motivation Romania

Project Report | Feb 21, 2024
David`s first wheelie gave back his hopes

By Anca Beudean | Project Leader

David doing his first wheelie in a new wheelchair

`For some time now, I have felt as if someone has stolen my steps` - David, 13 y.o.

Dear friend of Motivation Romania,

I hope my message finds you well. Here in my hometown of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, spring is slowly coming closer. I can feel it in the smell outside, the shy chirping of birds, the little snowdrop flowers coming out of the ground in many of the gardens I walk by on my way to work.

To me, spring is a time of awakening and new growth. For many of us, coming out of our temporary winter isolation is a choice we can make at will. But for children with mobility disabilities like David, an appropriate wheelchair is crucial to break out of lifelong isolation and regain the `steps`stolen by disability.

David is 13 years old and a seventh-grade student. He was born with muscular dystrophy, which progressively affected his mobility and strength until he and his family realized he would need a wheelchair to move around.

`Before Christmas, a wonderful team, the Motivation team, gave me a friend, a wheelchair. Now I can be independent. I can get to school by myself, I can go outside during the break, I can do a lot of things!"

When he and his family visited us at the wheelchair workshop, they expected to get a wheelchair that would require assistance to be handled. Instead, our colleagues conducted a wheelchair assessment and donated an appropriate, lightweight wheelchair, that can be easily handled by David himself. Under the guidance of our colleagues, he even tried his first wheelie – a wheelchair skill that allows him to go over obstacles, such as rough terrain or thresholds.

David is happy that he got his freedom of movement back. Now, he can participate in many different activities, with his friends and family. His parents can see that his mobility equipment not only meets his needs and size, but also boosts his confidence.

Continue to give so that a person with mobility needs can make choices in life!

Each month of every year, we get to know more new wheelchair users throughout the country, as we donate appropriate mobility equipment. Many of them also need to attend our peer group training camps, so they can regain their mobility and take on the journey towards more personal independence.

YOUR recurring donation enables us to continue to give back hope and a life of fulfillment to children and adults with disabilities like David.

Continue to donate so that other people with mobility disabilities get to choose freedom of movement.

This spring, let`s change lives for the better, together. Thank you!

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Oct 24, 2023
Today, Roxana feels brave!

By Anca Beudean | Sustainability Director

Roxana regains courage at the Motivation camp

`I kept asking my mother and my father why they could walk and I could not.` - Roxana

Dear friend of Motivation Romania,

This update is different than the others I`ve been sending. The story still is about the people Motivation helps through wheelchair donations, but from another angle. I am sharing with you the other side of our work - the subsequent support we provide people with mobility disabilities in the form of peer group training for wheelchair skills and independent living training.

Do you believe we all share the same reality? I know that each of us is different, and yet...How do you accept your reality when you discover what it is?

Roxana has been using a wheelchair since her early years. Her childhood was filled with questions and uncertainty, which later turned into fears. Roxana was afraid to go out, to travel and meet new people.

`Just later did I truly understand my situation.... It was not something easy to accept,` Roxana says.

In the beginning, she was hesitant about coming to the Motivation summer camp in Varatec. It was the first time she would spend time with other people with whom she shares the same reality. She was afraid she would not fit in.

`The first few hours, I felt a little awkward, because I had not had other opportunities to interact with people like me. I told myself that maybe it would not be that bad. I was not wrong, it was far better!`

During the six days at our camp, Roxana found answers to all her questions. She felt included and happy to understand her real potential.

`I was very happy.`

The joy experienced by Roxana and the other 8 persons from Suceava, Iasi, Satu Mare and Constanta who attended our camp was only made possible by good people like you, who understood that people with mobility disabilities need appropriate wheelchairs and training on how to use them. Only thus are they able to fulfill their right to feel the same joys like you, I or everyone else.

Our peer group training camps are about wheelchair skills training, about rights, but also about mental health. They are get-together opportunities organized by people who understand the route to independent living and who give their empathy in the process. Our camps are places where, even after you leave, you know that you are not left alone, but that you continue to receive the motivation you need to try new things. Through the power of examples around you, you can come to accept your reality.

`When another wheelchair user already went through the hardships you are going through, they automatically understand where you get stuck. They know when you truly cannot do more and can tell the difference between <I won`t> and <I can`t >.” - Roxana

Continue to give so that a person with mobility needs can regain their life!

At the camp, together with the other participants, Roxana started each morning with outdoor exercises. She practiced doing the wheelie, going up and down ramps, and wheelchair transfer techniques. She went sightseeing in Piatra-Neamt, saw the city from the cable car and rode a paddle boat.

Each year, we get to know more new wheelchair users as we donate appropriate mobility equipment throughout the country. Many of them also need to attend our peer group training camps, so that they discover their potential, regain their mobility and receive the empathy and support to travel the long route to personal independence.

YOUR recurring donation enables us to continue to give back hope and a life of fulfillment to people with mobility disabilities who need help for mobility and independence.

Continue to donate so that other people with mobility disabilities get to know freedom of movement.

Together we change lives for the better.

Thank you!

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Jul 3, 2023
Truth or dare? What's your pick?

By Anca Beudean | Sustainability Director

Watch video and share it-prevent diving accidents

Pssst...truth or dare? What's your pick?
What do you think a teenager would choose on a hot summer day, if you dared them to cool off in a nearby river? Or at the seaside, or in the first pool of water that they could get to?

Truth is, sometimes, actions that seem commonplace can lead to tragic consequences. The simple act of cooling off on a hot summer day could take its toll. Each year, tens of young people ask for our help because they end up using a wheelchair after diving accidents. They hit the water`s bottom and injure their spine. This leads to severely limited mobility and sensibility in their arms, body and legs. They cannot move and cannot feel their body under the level of the injury.

This is the story of many people in Romania who end up using a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. Thereafter, the first difference between a life in isolation and a life reclaimed is an appropriate wheelchair and the support Motivation Romania gives each individual who asks for our help.

This year, your donations on GlobalGiving gave back mobility to 3 wheelchair users. In total this year, we helped 287 people with the wheelchair they needed to get back on the track of a fulfilled life.

Thank you for being a generous donor for the Wheelchair Fund!

We need your continued support to help others regain their mobility. Our work goes on until there are no more people who need our help!

This is why, in addition to your financial support, we need your help to spread the word that

Diving in waters of unknown depths can lead to life in a wheelchair.

Watch this video and share it with your friends, on Facebook and WhatsApp. The more people watch it, the more chances we have to save lives or change them for the better!

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