Motivation Romania Wheelchair Fund

 `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!

Links:

• Listen to Roxana as she recounts her journey to courage
• Make your donation recurring to continue changing lives
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