Doing Good In Afghanistan
Finally, a good-news story out of a bad-news story. Some signs of hope amid the dismal drudgery of survival for a population stretched beyond endurance. Innocent people, ordinary people, caught in cross-fires, in the wake of suicide bombs, their lives and limbs shattered forever. Still, that old saying prevails; where there is life there is hope and certainly there is hope for the future, and even hope for the present.There is a Canadian foundation, the Wheelchair Foundation, founded by a Second World War veteran (who prefers to remain anonymous) from British Columbia. Through this foundation more than a half million wheelchairs have been distributed worldwide to those in need. Canadian soldiers distribute the wheelchairs, equipped with all-terrain tires to enable negotiation of the terrain in Afghanistan.
Yesterday, in Kandahar, 560 wheelchairs were delivered to medical facilities by the Wheelchair Foundation. It is estimated that up to 10% of the residents of Afghanistan's second-largest city are disabled; Afghan citizens missing limbs as a result of fighting, landmines and erratic war-time traffic. Military officials have reported that almost half of last year's 142 suicide bombings occurred in Kandahar province, where the Taliban emerged.
Although because it is an active war zone the Canadian military assists in delivering the wheelchairs, they don't represent a government initiative. This generosity and care for others is the result of a private individual who felt that the international community must do more to go out of its way to ensure that people living under such unendurable duress know they are not forgotten.
This is a gift that offers the ineffable: hope for the future, and dignity for the present, enabling those whose limbs have been shattered to once again become mobile and as independent as possible under dire war-torn circumstances.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 05, 2007
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