GIFT OF MOBILITY — A young woman who was buried for four days during the earthquake and had one leg amputated and the other cut off below the knee, receives a chair from Dale Aalbers of Lloydminster (left) and California state chaplain Msgr. Nestor Rebong. (K of C photo)

Knights distribute wheelchairs to quake victims in Haiti

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski

DENZIL, Sask. — An international delegation of Knights of Columbus members travelled to Haiti April 25 - 29 to distribute wheelchairs to victims of the earthquake, working in partnership with the Global Wheelchair Mission and the HHS Foundation of the Dominican Republic.

Among those participating in the outreach mission were former state deputy Marvin DeSchryver of Denzil, Sask., a community 70 km north of Regina, along with his wife Pat and their grandson, Dale Aalbers, 17, who was initiated into the Knights of Columbus two weeks before the trip.

“To witness the difference that a wheelchair can make in a person’s life is incredibly powerful,” said Aalbers. “We don’t realize what a gift our mobility is, the ability to walk, run, even get up off a chair,” said the Lloydminster high school student.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson met the delegation when they arrived at the University of Miami Hospital in Port au Prince. The Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus had previously announced that they would donate $150,000, or 1,000 wheelchairs, to earthquake victims in Haiti.

The DeSchryvers were selected to participate in this mission because of the past involvement of the Saskatchewan Knights in addressing the issue of mobility needs in poor nations.

In June 2007 the Saskatchewan Knights of Columbus were shown a presentation about the Wheelchair Foundation and the drastic need for mobilizing those who are unable to move about freely.

“Since that time, Saskatchewan Knights and their communities have raised in excess of $155,000 and delivered wheelchairs to Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic,” Marvin said.

Each recipient of a wheelchair is evaluated as to need and authenticity by the HHS Foundation, a charitable organization based in the area.

Numbers are tallied and recipients are assigned before delivery of the chairs.

The trip was a “real endurance test” for those on the mission, Marvin described. After more than 24 hours of travel, the delegation arrived at an orphanage outside Port au Prince, home to about 40 children who had lost their parents during the January earthquake.

“All the cooking was done on open fires,” said Marvin. “The only running water came from the young women who carried five gallon pails on their heads to fill a 400 gallon tank from about 500 metres away. From this tank there was a valve to draw water and distribute as needed. They did have a makeshift bathroom with flush toilets but the water had to be carried from the main tank. “

Participants were awake by about 5 a.m., helped to load the wheelchairs and then travelled into Port au Prince for the delivery of chairs at the “hospital” — a conglomeration of tents.

Some of the recipients had just come out of surgery; all were patients, Marvin noted.

The group unloaded and distributed another 70 wheelchairs at Santo Domingo the next day.

“The recipients started arriving at 8 a.m. and continued until 1 p.m. This again proved to be a very dramatic event as we got to place each recipient into their new wheelchair,” said Marvin. “The expressions of gratitude and smiles from all of them, together with the warm feelings of being able to help those in need, were overwhelming.”

Following the earthquake in Haiti, Knights of Columbus worldwide raised more than $500,000 for relief efforts.