Agoura Hills org. expands resources to help people with disabilities in third-world countries
Joni and Friends opened its first wheelchair restoration center outside of the country.
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- The Agoura Hills-based ministry organization Joni and Friends recently celebrated the opening of its first international wheelchair restoration center outside of the country. The center opened in September in El Salvador. It will restore used wheelchairs to like-new conditions for people in need and with disabilities across South America.
"I know the value of a wheelchair and how it gives the gift of mobility. Being in this wheelchair for 55 years, it's the next best thing to having legs that walk," said Joni Eareckson Tada, founder and CEO of the organization.
Eareckson Tada said the center in El Salvador will also help employ people with disabilities. The organization's wheelchair restoration program called Wheels For The World started in 1994. Since then, the program has enlisted inmates in U.S. prisons to help restore them and gifted more than 200,000 wheelchairs to people in third-world countries.
"In a developing nation like Thailand or Peru or El Salvador, a wheelchair can cost a year's wages. It's financially prohibited for many people with disabilities," Eareckson Tada said.
At the age of 17, a diving accident left Eareckson Tada a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. She established her ministry in 1979.
This year, the organization has also helped rescue more than 600 civilians with disabilities and their loved ones from the war in Ukraine.
"In Ukraine, we have a lot of multi-story buildings," said Galyna Tsymbal, a regional in-country coordinator with the organization. "You cannot use the elevator when there is an air alert. And it's difficult for the relatives to bring the person down in the wheelchair to the shelter."
The organization also has information on its website for anyone who would like to help.
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